The Doctor Visits
by MsCashew
Summary: The Doctor is trying to bring Royal Hope Hospital back home to Earth when the Judoon start chasing him after detecting him as non-human. Ducking out onto another patient balcony, he discovers that he's not alone. Tiny bit AU, eventual Ten/OC
1. An Awful Lot of Running

Oh my word, it's a Doctor Who fanfic! O.O But yes, the idea just popped into my head and I thought I'd write it out. :) It should be updated at least once a week (I have a few chapters written already) if not stated otherwise. :D So, why don't you take a comfy seat, sit back, and enjoy the ride? :)

**Some notes for you:** It'll be a bit AU, just to warn you (of course it will be with an OC ;) ), just kind of more switching some things around is all (does that count as AU? I'm just not sure. D: ) in the Doctor Who world. I will say now: I did kind of insert myself into this as the OC, as many of her experiences are mine, as I thought it'd be a different kind of story. :) It's not as if the Doctor falls for her right off the bat, or she turns out to be a Time Lady (have read many of those fics, of which many are good, so I'm not at all saying bad about them, so don't take it that way), but I just wanted to do something different. :) Also, it's not a typical adventure kind of thing where she hops in the TARDIS and off they run. Yes, there will be some of that, of course, just not right away. :) So, I hope you give it a chance and enjoy it immensely. :D

But what am I doing babbling on? Let's start the fic!

Oh, and I of course don't own the Doctor Who, as I probably would have convinced David Tennant to stay on as the Doctor for a little while longer. ;) (not to say I don't enjoy the Matt Smith, but I love my Ten :) ) Writing this is just for my own enjoyment. Hoorah!

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><p>Running is what he did best, and running was what he did most. It was also what he was doing right at that moment. Running down a long hospital hallway, trying to escape the brutal police force, these merciless beasts known as the Judoon. A police force who had stolen said hospital and placed it on the moon to find an alien fugitive. No, not him. A Plasmavore, actually. One that went by the name Florence Finnegan. Whom, at that moment, The Doctor was trying to locate as well, who he could have found quite easily, probably. That was before a Judoon scanned him and found he was a non-human as well, mistaking him for the culprit. So here he was, as always. Running from a problem and trying at the same time to find an answer to it.<p>

He did stall a few by doing a genetic transfer, which some would honestly mistake as "kissing" with Martha Jones , leaving traces of his DNA to confuse them. But that didn't stop all of them. No such luck for the Time Lord.

Ducking behind a corner, catching his breath for a brief moment, thanking an unknown someone for finding a corner. Soon peeking around the corner, he swiftly retreats, spotting the bulky rhinoceros humanoids marching down the long hallway toward him, hearing bits and pieces of their orders to find the 'tall skinny, non-human' for execution. How did he get himself into this mess?. . . How did he get himself into any of the messes he gets into, really? He sighs as he perfectly well knows that answer.

He hears their clomping footfalls coming nearer and nearer, knowing full well that they would be there in about 27 seconds, by his estimate, anyway. Eyes darting about excitedly for an escape route; he spotted a door to another patient balcony. Making a quick dash to the door, he just makes it outside, ducking down below the window, hearing their footfalls bustle by, his mind buzzing at what his plan was going to be.

"Okay. Wait patiently (so hard to do) for four/five minutes, give or take a few seconds, yes, that sounds about right. That should be enough time for the all clear, then it's back to finding Mrs. Finnegan." he speaks with himself, making out the plan, which he thought was as good as it was going to be in the situation he was in.

Hearing the footsteps pass, still waiting for that little bit of time to tick by; he looked around the balcony, seeing it was much like the previous he and Martha had stepped on. This one though, it had a bench, and to the Doctor's surprise, someone sitting on said bench.

This person's feet were tucked under her (he could plainly see that this was a female from the body shape), head bent low toward her lap, long dark brown hair hiding her face as her medical bracelet clad hand skittered back and forth quickly on what appeared to be a book of some type. Craning his neck a bit closer, he discovered that the book in question was a sketchbook. He couldn't help but wonder about her. How could he not when her behavior was the exact opposite of the whole hospital?

Hearing the Judoon footsteps down the hallway now, he decided to take a chance. Standing, stepping closer to the mystery girl that was sitting on the bench, he smiled.

"Hello!" She jumped at the sudden greeting, hand going to her chest as she appeared shocked, looking about quickly, spotting the Doctor after a second, him seeing her heave out a great sigh, probably of relief.

Looking up to the Doctor's face, looking him in the eyes, he saw her sigh again, a hand running through her hair quickly seeming to still be a bit surprised at his sudden appearance.

"Hi?" She said unsure in a small voice that didn't sound of a local accent. This made him smile wider.

"So," he started, thrusting his hands deep within his coat pockets, studying this girl on the bench a tad closely, his smile fading away as he spoke, "Large rhino like creatures are causing pandemonium in the hospital, everyone going into hysterics, and yet, here you sit in a seemingly calm demeanor, _outside_, no less. Didn't you think you'd suffocate out here?"

She bit her lip, seemingly in thought. She looked away a second, clearing her throat before she went on, "Honestly. . . no. A hospital sealed for outer space seemed very unlikely," the Doctor nods at this, impressed, "So something must be protecting it. Took a chance and here I am." she smiled a small smile at him, this making his smile return.

Her eyes looked back down at her sketchbook for a moment, the tip of her pencil going to rest on her bottom lip as if she had a thought, the Doctor taking a moment to study her features as she did this. She wore black framed glasses, the Doctor noticing that behind those specs were bright green eyes, them not hidden at all by them. She had a round face that was a bit chubby, he noting that she was a bit chubby all around, honestly, which really, wasn't a bad thing at all.

"So," She looks back at him, a questioning look on her face, "Your accent-"

"Yes, it's American." she says matter of factly, the obvious statement probably spoken countless times.

"Well anyone with an ear can hear that, don't be daft," he gets a bit of a disgruntled look on his face, asking seriously, "Was that rude? Sorry, anyway," He starts gesturing liberally with his hands as he tries to explain what he exactly means, "There's a bit of an accent there. . ." thinking momentarily, trying to place what he heard. He snaps his fingers, "Your O's! Your O's sound longer! Do you have some Swedish in you?"

"Well, yes I do, but why-"

"Norwegian too?" He interrupts as he starts getting excited, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet.

"Yes, but really-"

"Danish?"

"Yes, why-"

"Scandinavian!" he claps his hands together as he figures it out. "Amazing people you are! So many inventions! Such scenery. Northern Lights, the Midnight Sun, the Polar Nights. Such a brilliant part of the Earth." he says wistfully as his gaze looks upon the invisible dome.

"What's the point of pointing out my nationalities?" He hears her say, also saying mostly to herself of how she hasn't even been there. Looking back down at a very confused looking girl . . . well, woman, it looked like. She looked young, though . . .

"Well," He draws out that 'well' to a very slow drag, his hands going back into his pockets as he starts his explanation, "Scandinavians typically are in the north of the states, mostly in the Midwest, so you'd be . . .?"

"From Minnesota." she finishes his sentence, him giggling after, grinning widely.

"Made you say 'Minnesota'," he waggles his eyebrows, this making her not help but smile, seeming to shake her head in disbelief, "Haven't met too many Minnesotan Scandinavians, though I don't especially go to Minnesota. Love that accent, that "O" just kind of bringing you in an embrace and welcoming you. Wish "Fargo" did it right and not use such a thick rubbish accent. Just not right."

"So," he continues with his smile still in place, knowing he's babbling a little bit (though when isn't he?), he walks over to sit on the bench, plopping down on the other end, his bare feet padding the cold ground as he starts his question, "What are you working on, oh woman of the great North?"

"Um..." at a loss for words, it looks, he takes this opportune moment to reach into his pocket for his glasses, slipping them on in an instant as she fumbles a tad with her sketchbook.

"I was . . . sketching the moon. The moon's surface, I should say." She answers a tad shyly, tilting the book toward him a bit unsure in her action. He studies the halfway done (what he presumes is halfway done) drawing of the moons surface, finding it quite amazing that she would even think to go and capture the moon's surface in such a predicament. He sees her biting her bottom lip once more out of the corner of his eye, deducting that it was most likely because of nerves.

"Fantastic." he compliments, on more than just the drawing, really.

"Thank you." she says with that shy smile again.

"Granted, a bit cartoon-y, and the Earth is a bit off, but - Oh, am I being rude again?" he looks to her, hoping he wasn't. She just smiles wider, chuckling.

"Maybe a smidgen, but I'd say you're being more honest than anything," this makes him grin, "And cartoon-y is what I do as I'm a bit of a cartoonist . . .Well, I'd like to be one of these days, anyway."

"What's your name?"

"Carla. What's yours?"

"Carla! Lovely name," she smiles a bit more at this, "I'm The Doctor."

"Doctor what?" his smile falters a tad as he doesn't hear the usual 'Doctor who'.

"Oh, you are different, that's for sure." He interrupts her with his grin reappearing in a matter of fact tone.

"And so are you, seeing as you're wearing a suit with no shoes." He looks down at his feet, looking as if he forgot. He looks back to her still with his grin. But then he giggles, making her raise an eyebrow quizzically at him, "What?"

"The way you said '_shoes_'. It's brilliant." She just shakes her head a bit again, seeming to ignore that he was enjoying her Minnesotan accent a bit too much.

"So do you have a name, Doctor?"

"Nope. I'm just 'The Doctor'."

"Well, 'The Doctor'," she takes a second, blushing slightly, muttering more to herself, "That was such a stupid joke," Letting out a deep breath, she becomes a bit more serious once again, looking back into his dark brown eyes with those green ones, "You're making sure the patients are alright, yes?" Oh, she thought he was an actual doctor. . .Well . . . Shouldn't disappoint her. He just nods, bringing his hand up to his chin as if he were giving it some serious thought, "Well I'm fine. They scanned me, see?" she holds up her left hand for him to see the big "X", him nodding once again, "I'm human. Yay." She says with a bit of a fake cheeky grin, making the Doctor smile again, "So I'd be checking on other patients. Thank you, doctor for coming to check on me."

Her eyes trail back to the half finished drawing of the moon's surface, seemingly to absentmindedly make a stroke or two with her pencil, her eyes staring down at the page, the Doctor seeing that she wasn't especially focusing right then. Edging a tad closer, he asks in a very curious tone,

"Aren't you scared?" Her grip on her pencil tightens the slightest bit as she hears his question, eyes going back to his, such fear swimming in them, a hint of something else hidden there.

"Terrified," she utters barely above a whisper, "I mean, we could all be dead in a little bit from, from a number of things. Running out of air, a riot breaking out, th-those rhino people things . . . But . . ." that something else hidden in her eyes intensifies as she continues, "How can I just sit by, waiting for maybe the end when I have the chance to sketch the moon? **_The moon_**!" The Doctor knew right then what was in her eyes. It wasn't just fear, not by a long shot: It was excitement. It was passion and wonderment all rolled into one. He couldn't help the smile breaking out from seeing it.

"Took such a risk to travel, to _move_ to London," she says more to herself, going back to the Doctor soon after, "But just look where I am, where we are. Even in my wildest dreams," she continues, gesturing towards the vastness out in front of them, "When am I ever going to have the chance to draw the moon in person ever again?"

"You'd be surprised." the Doctor retorts with a bit of a wink.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," He quickly says, hopping back up, Carla's eyes on him as he moves back toward the door, "Been about four minutes, give or take a few seconds, which is so much more than I should have risked. . ." He looks back at her as he slides his glasses off, placing them back into his pocket, giving her a grin as he places his hand on the door handle, "Carla, Scandinavian of the North. Keep at that." He gestures at her book, the door halfway open heading out already. . .

"Doctor?" he hears her call behind her, knowing full well that he should pretend that he didn't hear her, that he should keep going and locate the Plasmavore and help the entire hospital. . . He _should_, anyway. Turning his head back to the girl on the bench, seeing that her sketchbook was now on the bench itself, her torso turned toward the door as she called him. He turned around, giving his full attention.

"You'll probably be exceptionally optimistic as most doctors are, but I need to ask. . . Do you think we'll be alright?"

"I haven't the slightest clue." his smile wild with enthusiasm, she laughed at his answer, a tad of a throaty laugh emitting from her that he didn't quite expect.

"It's nice to hear a straight answer for once." her smile remaining from her laughter, a mournful look mixed in with her happy expression, "Really it is."

He should really go. Oh yes, he really ought to, he was running out of time fast . . .

So going back over to her; kneeling before her, looking right into her eyes, he offered his hands, wiggling his fingers a little bit as invitation to take hold. She does so, the Doctor holding her soft hands, noting a callus on her right, most likely from it being her hand she had been drawing with.

With a reassuring squeeze, he offers a smile, and utterly surprising himself, offers the truth as well, "Carla, I can't promise everyone will be safe, I can't promise you will be either. But I can promise that I'll do all that I can in my power to bring this hospital back to Earth and make sure nothing else terrible happens. Alright?" She nods with a small smile, giving his hands a squeeze back, "Brilliant. Now, you must get inside. It'll be safer in there." Another nod from her and one more hand squeeze from him as the word, "Good." fell from his lips.

His hands slipping from hers, giving her one last wide smile, and without another word spoken; he dashes away, not waiting for her to follow him, needing to run once again, once more running toward the fugitive Plasmavore to expose her, clear himself, and bring the hospital, and especially it's patients, home to safety once again.

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><p>And there we be! :D Thoughts? Outrages? Comments? About the ScandinavianMinnesotan part and why he's so tickled about the accent: My beau is so terribly amused by my Minnesotan accent, that I thought the Doctor would be as well. :D So there you be.

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my first Doctor Who fanfic! Reviews would be ever so loverly (like writing the tenth doctor, does he seem . . . Doctor-ish enough?), so this fic can be as grand as it can be. :D

And there you go. Thanks everyone!


	2. What a Way to Go

Hello, ladles and jelly spoons!

Well, I thought since this was a short chapter that I'd let you guys and gals have at it. :) I should mention that the story will go from between the Doctor's and Carla's POV, just to warn you. And as the story progresses and they become closer along the way, it'll meld a bit more as it goes on. :)

So yes, enjoy! More author type notes at the end.

Don't own the Doctor Who, be fun if I did, but I just don't. Story is just for my own enjoyment. :)

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><p>Sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, looking on as space goes by behind a simple hospital window... It was amazing, oh so terribly amazing. . . Even if the air was starting to get thin, even if it was making it difficult to breath. . . The view was, not to mean to make a morbid pun: Breathtaking.<p>

Carla looked on at the vast darkness that was known as space, seeing stars, so, **so**, many stars. Seeing the view of Earth only a handful had ever gotten to see. How gorgeous was that? How lucky was she to see this? . . . How unlucky was she that it was probably the last thing she was going to see? Sighing, she leaned her head back, closing her eyes as she tried to get a deep breath in. No such luck. The air was getting even thinner second by second.

"What a way to go." she says to herself softly, eyes opening, looking up at the more than blank ceiling, feeling a sting in her eye, her hand lifting up to swipe away at a tear that hadn't quite made it's appearance, "Didn't get to say goodbye, to anyone, get to hug them, not even say 'I love you' one more time," the tears started to spill over, her trying to swipe them away quickly, not being especially successful with the low energy she was experiencing from lack of oxygen.

"Why did I have to travel, to **_move _**so far from my family? To another country? ! . . . I just wanted to travel, see a bit of the world and do so if anything were to happen before...b-before I got better. Three long years doing this and I don't even die from not getting a transplant, not even dying on an operating table, but, in space! Space, of all places!" the tears flowed a bit more freely before she brushed them away in frustration, clenching her fists at her sides as she took in a shuddering breath.

"Stop it, just stop," She spoke to her lonesome self, "You know you can't get so emotional, it's not like you, you c-can't, it's just a bother to everyone around you. Let's try and look at the positives," yes, she tried to stay positive, even in the health situation she was in, but this was a bit ridiculous, even for her.

"My family does know that I love them. . . I'm sure of that. I did get to travel to the one place I wanted to see more than anything and see places that were amazing. God, I got to see space! I didn't even intend to see it, but here I am, still looking out at Earth." her voice was getting softer as it was getting more difficult to breath, she starting to feel so very tired.

She paused for a moment, thinking back to not even a half hour ago.

"I met a doctor that was positively goofy and made me feel better." Quite a number of the doctors over here were a bit more business like and just wanted to make you well without really speaking with you and getting to know you. Sure, there was the occasional one that was nice and wanted to make chit chat, but this doctor, "The Doctor", as he went by, was beyond that, went way beyond, honestly. Even with just the terribly short amount of time he spent with her, he seemed genuinely nice, and that was hard to come by really, no matter what kind of work or background you came from . . . and he had freckles! Freckles were amazing and fun to draw. She so wished she had been born with freckles.

She actually got a small chuckle out of her stupid thought, coughing afterward, her lungs screaming out for a bit more air. . .

Glimpsing through such heavy lidded eyes, vision darkening around on all sides, seeming as if she were almost in a tunnel, the view of space looking so far away; she couldn't help but form the tiniest of smiles. She had gotten to go to outer space, to the moon, and now . . . She was descending into darkness. That tunnel growing smaller and smaller, the air growing thinner and thinner, her air running so near to gone, hearing something as she was losing consciousness, something so familiar. . . Almost like tiny drums sounding all around her . . . Rain. Rain on the moon. How about that.

Words escaped on her last exhale, sounding so very small and yet feeling in such a pleasant tone:

"What a way to go. . ."

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><p>They had done it. The hospital was safe, the Judoon had returned them back to Earth and everyone was fine. Though, he wanted to see if one particular patient was fine, just to make sure, you know.<p>

Walking down the long sterile hallway, seeing a few people here and there, he made his way to the balcony where he met the woman from Minnesota. He smiled at his thought. He really did love that accent.

He found what he was looking for, the hall deserted of people. He sure hoped that she hadn't been mad enough to stay outside. Looking out the window, he sighed, being thankful that she had listened to him. But then again, she should be here in the hallway with at least a nurse helping her, shouldn't she? His head jerked all around in an attempt to see Carla and a nurse, but he knew it was pointless: There wasn't a soul here. Shoulders slumping, burying his hands deep into his pockets, he let out a long sigh once more, turning around to go when his foot caught something that wasn't one of the seats set up down this hallway.

He looked down, eyebrows raising all the way to his hairline as he saw the corner of a book, looking as if it was hiding under the small settee. Stooping low, he snatched it up and found a very colorful cover. A cover full of painted on doodles of hands, eyes, rainbows, and a couple of old cartoon-y robots. He grinned at the cover.

"Brilliant." He spoke softly as he studied the cover a bit more.

Taking a look around, as if to make sure the coast was clear, he started to flip through the book finding more hands and eyes (and robots, which made him giggle), but sketchier. He also found sketchy figure drawings, little comic strips, whole character pages and a few finished works as well, and was more than surprised at finding a very sketchy Dalek with not terribly much detail (must have been quite far off from them).

"She doesn't miss an opportunity, does she?" he said in a tad of a sad tone, images popping up in his mind about that day, about the Void, about _her_ . . . Giving his head a little shake, he turns the page quickly, not wanting to remember more.

"She does do cartoon-y quite well." He mumbled as he studied more sketched pages, being reminded of her comments about wanting to be a bit of a cartoonist.

He turned another page and just stared for a second, seeing the moon's surface complete, a wide grin appearing as he noticed a little message in the corner:

_To: The Doctor,_

_Thanks. :)  
><em>

_Carla Snow  
><em>

A date completed the message, the Doctor closing the book, looking it over once more before tucking it away in a pocket inside his coat. He had to return this, he had to see if Carla was alright of course as well. But first, he had to see Martha Jones. She was a more than bright woman and was a great help through this whole ordeal. He had to repay her for her help._  
><em>

Sauntering back down the hallway, he couldn't help but think of Carla's name, almost as if he had heard it before.

"Carla Snow. . . Carla Snow . . ." he screeched to a stop, running his hand through his hair, a sudden grin forming on his face. He burst out laughing, "She's from Minnesota and her last name is 'Snow'! Fantastic!"

Guess he didn't know the name after all.

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><p>And there was chapter two for you all! :D So, I've never been to the UK (I would <strong>LOVE<strong> to one day), all my hospital stuff was in the US, so I don't know how doctors are there. I'm quite sure they're positively lovely, really, so please if you're in hospital across the pond and you have wonderful doctors, I hope you don't take offense. :) I just wanted to make it a bit like. . . she does have good doctor(s), and they're nice enough, but the Doctor was beyond that. :) Make sense? We'll get more in depth with her, not to worry. :)

And did the Doctor just get a giggle out of her name, or has he actually heard it before? ! D: Oh my good golly gosh, suspense!

But yes, I hope you enjoyed, my lovelies! As always, comments and reviews, and anything is wonderful. :D Oh, and:

Paraiso - Thanks so much for the lovely review. :D You're brilliant. Hearts.

Even angels cry - Thank you too, my lovely. :D You're fantastic. Heartsssss.


	3. It's a Tad Barbaric

So soon with an update? ! Oh my goodness. O.O

No, but . . . I thought, "Why not?" since I had the chapter ready (editing chapter four right now :) ), so here's a treat for you boys and girls with an early update. :D Now, it won't be every couple days with an update, like I said at first chapter, but an early chapter every now and again I can do. ;)

Enjoy! More notes to follow at the end of the chapter. :)

I don't own the Doctor Who. Sad, I know. D:

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><p>"That Billy, never gets old, does he?"<p>

"He certainly doesn't, I must admit." Martha laughed at their adventure together, the Doctor smiling right along with her. They were cruising along in the TARDIS after their adventure of meeting William Shakespeare and banding together with him to defeat the witch like aliens known as the Carrionites. Wicked little buggers, they were, "And you do this all the time, do you? Travel in time and space, saving the world when it needs saving?"

"In a nutshell, I'd say that's about right." he gave her a lopsided grin, her returning a grin that was nearly identical.

"So, Martha Jones," he started, adjusting a lever on his console, "Did that little trip frighten you off to the point you'd want to forget me, or," he looked at her expectantly, giving his ear a little tug as he started to ask his question, "Would you be willing to have another trip with me? You know, since you did so well with the Carrionites and all, should have one more trip."

"I'd love to. . . Though," His eyebrows raised the slightest bit, "I am a medical student. With the TARDIS, it seems like we could be gone weeks and you could just bring me back from just a few minutes after we left," He nods a tad at this, "Even though that would be amazing, I just can't see myself being a very good doctor when I work once every few weeks. I don't want my education to go all pear shaped. Could you, maybe, park for a bit so I could go in for my shift and we discuss this further after?" he smiled, giving her a little nod.

"Of course we can." She smiled, giving him an appreciative pat on his shoulder. Sure, it was a bit boring just sitting around for half the day waiting on your passenger, but he could get a bit of overdue work done around the TARDIS. And really, dropping Martha off at the hospital would give him the perfect opportunity to check in on Carla Snow . . . Well, he hoped that she was okay. Giving his coat a quick pat where his inside pocket was containing her sketchbook, he started to set the levers, pushed some buttons, and hit a spot on the top with his trusty rubber mallet. Soon they'd be landing right near the hospital.

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><p>After sending Martha on her way to work, the Doctor found the nearest nurses station he could find, asking if they could look up a 'Carla Snow' for him.<p>

"Oh yes, right here," a bit of a portly nurse said kindly as she looked on at one of her station's computers, "Seems she's in treatment right now, but you can still visit her. Ward 17. Two floors up, go right when you get off the lift." She smiled at him, seeming happy to help.

"Thank you." he offered a smile back, feeling the weight he hadn't realized was there rise from his chest as he sprang forward toward the lifts. Not being one to wait (and as there was no one around), he discreetly took out his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and used it on the button, hearing the machine whiz up to meet him in no time flat.

Stepping on, making his way to Ward 17, shifting about a tad uncomfortably as the lift made it's way two floors up, he started wondering: What kind of treatment did Ward 17 actually hold? Well, she did look like a normal woman (though looking a bit young, as he thought again), he just made the guess she was having a short stay, maybe having had a bad case of the flu or something. But having a treatment, that could be a number of things. . . Why exactly was he obsessing over it on such a short ride? He would see for himself soon enough.

He soon stepped off the lift, taking a right (almost taking a left, which he could have slapped himself for) heading a little ways down the hall, spotting to his left a doorway, the words **WARD 17 **printed boldly above.

Walking through, down another hallway (which was a bit smaller than previous), at the end he came upon another desk that was in the middle of the room (that was quite large with four sides), a mousy little woman typing away at one of the computers, looking as if she were secretary, a couple nurses milling about behind her, also seeing a couple hospital curtains in a couple corners pulled forward so you couldn't see what was going on.

"Hello! Excuse me," the woman looked up, a bit surprised someone was there, "I'm looking for a Carla Snow? She wouldn't happen to be here, would she?" The woman, going back to her typing, pointed to an archway.

"Beyond there, far left corner." She answered in a very bored tone, not looking up at the Doctor again.

"Thanks." he said a bit unsure. Walking through the archway, he spotted her immediately reclined back in a chair. He smiled as he started walking toward her. He however stopped quickly, a tad in shock as he saw exactly what her treatment was: She was on dialysis. Looking around, seeming just to make sure, he spotted a couple other patients on the same kind of machine, one was watching the telly, but not a very good show, he noted.

Walking up to her once again, he found up close that she had dozed off, head leaning to the side a tad, her mouth very slightly open as her hands were folded on top of her stomach, seeing those hands rise as she took in deep, restful breaths. The Doctor smiled a small smile.

Taking out his glasses, he walked over to the machine that had tubes running all around it to inspect it further, the machine clicking and popping and whirring away as blood was running through the tubing. . . Really, kind of siphoning it out of one tube of the woman from the North, cleaning it of it's toxins, and injecting it back in another. The Doctor scanned it very briefly with his sonic, putting it back in his coat quickly, his hand reaching up to pull on his ear in thought.

"Tad barbaric, but efficient for it's time." he commented to his self as he looked down at Carla, seeing the tubes running under her shirt (a t-shirt with the "Underground" symbol on it, no less, which made the Doctor grin), an outline of said tubes looking to run up to her chest, "She looks so young. . . Looks like she could even be in her teens." The Doctor raised an eyebrow, reaching into his pocket once again, pulling out his handy screwdriver.

Studying his little gadget for a moment; he looked over his shoulder for a second to see if anyone was looking. When he found no one was, he pointed the device at her, scanning her carefully. He brought it back up to inspect, his eyebrows raising high in surprise.

"Almost twenty-six. You are indeed young, but not as young as I made you out to be. What else... Complete renal failure, body scan shows you've been on dialysis for a little over three years, seem to be doing pretty well, considering it's hard on the body. Let's see...Blimey! A pacemaker? Not even in the normal place, it's right at the top of your stomach!" He ran his hand through his hair quickly, quite impressed that that little gizmo was there, "Amazing!" he looked upon her with a grin as she squirmed a bit in her sleep, turning her head with a content sigh; she was still once again, still sleeping away.

The Doctor placed his sonic screwdriver back, noticing a chair by Carla's. Taking up residence in said chair, leaning back to get comfortable, he decided to wait for her to wake. After all, he did have a bit of time on his hands.

* * *

><p>She was having such an odd dream. She had traveled even further than she ever could imagine, the places she was seeing brighter and more fantastical than even the stars and Earth she saw up close a few days ago on the moon. But there was trouble. Such trouble that she couldn't even fathom it all, it was either her or . . . But then, the dream switched gears quite unexpectedly. She was queen of fruits and desperately trying to slay the monkey hoard that was trying to rule over her banana empire. Why in the world was she dreaming this?<p>

Slowly, she started to wake, smelling banana as she did so. Why was their banana near her in Ward 17?

Her eyes squinting awake, an outline of a man started to form, rather too close for her liking as she had no clue as to who it was. About a foot away, brown, spectacled eyes came into view along with a bit of a hooked nose, and a side-burned face that was filled with an abundance of freckles.

"Hello!" He said a bit loudly and cheerfully, making her jump into a full sitting position, hand springing to her chest again in shock, the machine beeping in protest to her sudden movement. She put her hands down slowly as if in surrender, the machine stopping it's beeping as she realized who had surprised her.

"My Lord...Fancy meeting you here." She said in a sleep laden voice, running a hand through her hair quick as she looked over at him, noting him munching on a banana as he grinned at her.

"Why are you eating a banana?" she realized even in her half awake state how silly that question was.

"Was hungry." He simply said as he took another bite, "Bananas are good." He added after he swallowed.

"They are," She agreed, "Can't have them much though, too much potassium." she babbled on as she started to wake more.

"What a shame! Always keep a banana on me." He nodded as the last bit of his banana was eaten, tossing the peel in a near by trash can.

"Hi." She said softly after a moment, studying him a tad bit.

"Hello!" He said just as cheerfully as the first time, that lopsided grin remaining.

"So, 'The Doctor'," She started, still studying him a bit.

"Yes, Carla?" she smiled a bit at him remembering her name.

"Why are you here?" she blurted out before thinking, feeling her cheeks turn pink. He just chuckled, her cheeks feeling a bit more warm as she felt so rude at her bluntness.

"Well," Again with that very long dragged out 'well', she noted, "I wanted to see how you were, honestly." she blushed a bit more at his words as she saw him tug on his earlobe a bit, "And, oh!" He continued as he reached into his coat, "I found this, thought I'd return it." He handed her a sketchbook. . . her sketchbook. She took it, seeming to be at a loss for words.

"I thought this was gone for good. . . Thank you, so much, but . . . You went back to where we were?" she said softly, a bit in shocked awe as she placed the returned book in her lap.

"Of course. Had to see how the Scandinavian of the North faired after this hospital came back form the moon. Not an everyday occurrence that people go through." He gave her a cheeky grin, her chuckling at his ever seeming goofiness.

"All good, though? Nothing out of the ordinary besides-" he seemed to stop himself before he could point out the obvious, now blushing a bit himself. She smiled at him in understanding.

"Yeah. Just a bit weak for the rest of the day, that's all." he nodded with a smile.

"I'm glad," He answered nicely, "Been in here long? I mean, not for-" he pointed toward the machine, sounding a bit flustered, "It looks like, seems like you've been on this thing for a while, is all." She just chuckled a bit more.

"Just the week. My line had an infection. They caught it quick though before it got too bad, which can be a nasty ordeal. Two month stay instead of a two week one. Not much fun." he smiled again at her, nodding his head in understanding.

They fell a bit into a comfortable silence after that, just kind of sitting with one another. She had to admit, it was nice having someone sit with her again, even if it was a doctor doing his job.

"I like your trainers." His compliment jostled her from her thoughts, laughing a bit as she looked at him and his wide grin as he pointed to his own sneakers after complimenting hers, they matching in the color cream except hers had a couple patches she had sewn on herself (which in all honesty, probably wasn't the best sewing at all).

"Thank you," He grinned a bit wider, "I like your glasses." his eyes looked to the top of the rims of his glasses, looking as if he just remembered he was still wearing them. He giggled.

"Thanks. We match!" he cheered out, making her laugh more.

"We do." She said as she looked on at her shoes on the foot of the recliner, tapping her fingers on her sketchbook cover when she suddenly remembered, "Oh! Hold on..." She flipped through her sketchbook quickly, finding the last page. She looked over with a small blush, looking back as she tore the page out carefully.

"I don't normally hand out a sketched page to people I don't especially know, but," he looked on expectantly, as if he knew what was coming, "I thought, well. . . you might like this." she handed him the sketch of the moon a bit shyly, biting her lip as she did, keeping her eyes on the now blank page.

When she didn't hear him say anything, she looked over at him carefully, only to find that he was smiling very nicely and very widely.

"This is **_amazing_**! Thank you, Carla Snow, very much." she grinned back, feeling it a stupid grin, the Doctor giggling a bit with glee.

"Your name, though," He started, sounding a bit serious.

"What about my name?" She said, sounding almost a bit defensive. He formed a wicked smirk, chuckling.

"You're from Minnesota, and your last name is-"

"Yes, Snow, my last name is Snow, we have more than enough snow in the winter, funny, ha ha." She finished, thinking it almost odd that he was so enthralled by her Minnesotanness. He suddenly burst out laughing right as she finished, she feeling so confused.

"What?"

"They way you say 'snow' with your accent. Brilliant!" she just put her face in her hands, shaking her head with a groan at his easily amused nature, hearing him giggle a bit more.

The machine started to beep, but not because she was moving around, but because her run was over. Already seeing the nurse making her way slowly toward her, she looked over at the Doctor, giving him an appreciative smile.

"Thanks for visiting, Doctor."

"Thank _you_ for the art." He said brightly, standing from his chair, seeming to hold the page that held her sketch especially with care.

"No problem." she smiled, not especially believing that she had actually given a man out of the blue one of her sketches.

"So, Carla of the great white North," She could see that he was pushing it with the names from the little smirk that was hiding in his face, "What days do you have dialysis?"

She was taken a bit back by this. Why would he want to know?

"Um, well... I run Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Why?"

"I was just thinking that I'll probably be around here and there, maybe you wouldn't mind a visitor now and again?"

"What? !" she was surprised more than anything.

* * *

><p>He knew he shouldn't have presumed she'd want a visitor. He just knew it. How old was he and he still hadn't learned not to get his hopes up?<p>

"Truthfully, not exactly the reaction I expected," he said with a bit of a scrunched up face, finally removing his glasses and sliding them into his pocket, "But, you don't know me, perfectly understandable. I mean, I could be like Jack the Ripper, and you wouldn't know it. Not that I am, mind you, almost caught him though, you know, almost, but he was such a slippery fellow," he knew he was babbling, "So, have a good day, Carla."

He turned around and started walking toward the exit when he heard a , "Wait!" He turned around to see Carla looking at him, her cheeks pink once again from blushing, her chewing her bottom lip once more.

"I didn't mean how that came out." She smiled shyly, the doctor walking back toward her chair (the nurse that had been heading toward her chair seeming to be distracted by another patient), looking down at her with a small smile as she continued.

"I just . . . It's just that not many doctor's here seem to be very personal, and you're not even my doctor, and your visiting invite surprised me." He grinned at this (a bit at her babbling too) and the fact that she still thought he was a doctor, "Plus. . . I haven't especially gotten to know many people since moving here and, well, having a visitor would be amazing." She smiled brightly, her green eyes shining from it, him grinning wider.

"Oh, I'm not a doctor." He decided to set her straight, even if he was tickled by her thinking he was a doctor.

"You're not?" she asked surprised again.

"Nope, well, not really. Yes and no, it's all a very complicated matter to explain."

". . . If you say so." She said a bit unsure, the look on her face making him giggle.

Noting the nurse was on her way again, he held out his non-holding sketch hand, she figuring out very quickly that when he held out his hand, you were supposed to take it. He gave her hand a squeeze and gave her a smile, her returning each gesture.

"I'll see you for a visit later on, then." she gave him a nod and a smile, and with that, he took his leave right when the nurse came up to the machine, him grinning on the way out of the dialysis ward, liking that he had found something fun to do, someone that seemed interesting to visit, for when he had to park the TARDIS.

* * *

><p>And there was chapter three, huzzah! :) I enjoyed writing the monkey hoard part, I have to say. Hee. :D But yes. He'll get to visit while Martha does her doctor-y things. Fantastic, yes? :D I thought it was a fun idea. . .<p>

Even angels Cry - Oh, I understood perfectly (I've reviewed stories in the wee hours of the morn as well, ha :D), so no worries. :) Thanks so much for the kind review, lovely. :3

Paraiso - I'm glad you're enjoying the fic so far. You write such lovely reviews, thanks so much for your kind words and encouragement. :D

And there you be. :) I hope you all enjoyed and the next chapter should be up in the next few days. Until then, happy days!


	4. Cheating at Cards

Hello, my lovelies! So, here is chapter four for you all. :D Sorry it wasn't put up as quick as previous chapters, but at the same time, I did say it'd be every few days usually (kept fiddling with the editing of the chapter, I think it's loverly to post now :D). So . . . Let's get on with it.

**And, thanks so much to everyone for the favs and alerts (and of course reviews ;) ) on this story! :D It makes me so terribly happy that people are liking it.**

Like always, more notes at the end. :)

Also, I don't own the Doctor Who. If I did, he'd be visiting Minnesota quite a bit more often . . .

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><p>They were silent all through the vortex as they made their way to Earth, the words of The Face of Boe still echoing in the Doctor's mind.<p>

_"You are not alone."_  
><em><br>_True, he did feel somewhat. . . okay after speaking with Martha (even if it was a bit forced), but this news, it troubled him greatly._  
><em>  
>They parked in the same place as last time, the Doctor giving her a smile.<p>

"Here we are, Earth, Royal Hope Hospital, twenty minutes before your shift starts, two days after your last." She smiles back, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you, Doctor. It's...It's been an amazing trip. You going to be okay?" He gave her a small nod.

"Of course. I'm always okay," he gave her another smile that he knew must have looked terribly fake, "Meet back here by the TARDIS after your shift, alright?" She nodded, "Good. I'll see you later today." Another nod from Martha and she starts walking away to the door. Reaching it, she looks back over her shoulder.

"Are you sure you're alright? You going to be okay while I'm away?" thinking of paying a visit to Carla, he smiles, placing his hands in his pockets as he rocks a bit back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"I'll be fine. Have places to go, people to see, all that kind of stuff. I'll be more than okay." She smiles and gives him a wave, him hearing a 'Okay, see you this afternoon' as she made her way through the Police Box doors.

* * *

><p>"Excuse me, where would the dialysis ward be?" he can't believe he forgot where to go. He was at the same nurses station as before on the first floor (it being very near the entrance), feeling like a positive dunce that he forgot.<p>

A portly nurse swiveled around in her chair, her face lighting up at seeing him.

"Oh, it' you! I remember you from the other day." she added, at seeing, he was guessing the confused look he felt he had on his face. He mouthed an 'oh' as he remembered the kindly older woman though, smiling again.

"Oh, hello! Yes, that ward, please." He politely said to her jolly self.

"Ward 17. Two floors up, go right when you get off the lift."

"Thank you." he gave her a nod and another friendly smile, making his way toward the lifts.

"Anytime, dear." he heard her call after him, this making him smile.

He made the same way as before (getting there slightly faster once again with his sonic screwdriver as no one was around), made his way down the hall (almost going left again), making his way down the smaller hallway, meeting the secretary, her typing away at the computer.

"Excuse me?" the mousy secretary seemed surprised once more at being disturbed, "Carla Snow, please?" And again, she went back to her typing, pointing in the same direction, not even uttering where she was (as he was guessing, she probably remembered him). He nodded in thanks, making his way through the archway, spotting her right away.

He made his way over with a smile, ready to greet her, but was surprised that yet again; she had dozed off (noting that she was in pyjamas this time as she wore a band t-shirt and purple plaid trousers). This made him giggle.

"She settles down to sleep quite well, doesn't she?" Once again, he spotted the same chair by hers. Helping himself, he sat down, leaning back to get a bit more comfortable and decided to wait for her to wake.

He didn't have to wait long.

He noticed her start to stir about twenty minutes after he had made himself comfortable. Just like two days ago (well, two days to her), her eyes started to squint open from the bright light out her window as they slowly opened. Seeing that they were focused on him, he smiled wide and greeted her enthusiastically:

"All right?" this made her jump to a sitting position again, the sudden movement making her machine beep loudly. She raised her hands as if in surrender once more, the machine beeping dying down to nothing.

"Are you alright over there, Ms. Snow?" a nurse called over to her from the large desk as Carla rubbed her eyes awake.

"Yes, I'm fine. Sorry." She called over with sleep still in her voice. She looked over at the Doctor as she ran a hand through her hair quick, a grin on his face as he moved to the edge of his seat.

"I didn't realize you were so skittish." He teased, raising an eyebrow.

"I didn't realize you stalked sleeping women." she shot back, this making him laugh, putting an elbow on his knee and his chin in his hand, studying her expression as she kept looking at him. It was a tad annoyed, but at the same time, held amusement, "Are you going to do that every time? Just sit there and watch me sleep?"

"Depends, are you going be sleeping every time I come and visit?" he waggled his eyebrows as he gave her a cheeky grin, her shaking her head with a smile.

"I'm a notorious night owl, I usually doze off on dialysis days." he smiled more at this but felt a tad confused as she put her face into her hands, shaking her head a bit more.

"Oh Lord." She sounded muffled as her face was in her hands. She looked up from her hands with a bit of a worried look, he seeing that she was biting her lip. He tilted his head a bit, as if to ask what was wrong.

"I honestly didn't think you'd come and visit so soon. I thought you'd come by maybe a week later, or something, so, I . . . I didn't think to put on some actual clothes and not just stay in my jammies," she looked to her lap as she wrung her hands a tad, "I don't exactly like people that visit to see me..." She paused as she continued, seeming to think of the right wording, ". . .look like a patient." she muttered quietly, her cheeks going a tad pink, one of her hands going to play with a strand of hair.

"I think you look fantastic." she turned, seeing his grin, this seeming to make her smile, but still blush a bit, "Well, what I mean is, besides being hooked up to a machine," this statement earning him a bit of an odd look, "I don't think you look like a patient. And in my day, I've seen patients wear much worse, some in nothing but their knickers, others not wearing anything at all!" this made her laugh, "And the illnesses! Leprosy, the plague, petrifold regression, all sorts of things that you couldn't even imagine." she gave him another odd look, "What was my point? Oh yes! What my point is, is that you don't look half bad for being a patient." she stared for a second, starting to giggle as she shook her head.

"I thought you weren't a doctor." she says skeptically, an eyebrow cocked the slightest bit.

"I'm not, but I am. It's all very, complicated, wibbly wobbly stuff." he gestures with a bit of a wiggle of his fingers, her giggling once again.

"You are a very odd man."

"If the trainer fits." he teased as he stretched, putting his red clad shoes on the foot rest of her chair, making her giggle again.

"But, you're also very nice." she said softly, her expression thoughtful, "Maybe too nice. You don't even know me, and yet here you are, just hanging out with me."

"Do you like cards?" he said suddenly as an idea popped into his head, sitting up, reaching deep within his never ending pockets (pulling out a yo-yo, a toothbrush, and a Harry Potter book, Carla giving him a bemused look the whole time).

"Yeah, I do, actually."

"Well," the word sauntering out of his lips as he found the cards, pulling them out of the box and starting to shuffle, "How about this, Carla of the North: Play some cards, and I'll get to know you more?"

"Does this work both ways? Do I get to know you a bit too?"

"That's always a possibility." He answers a bit cheekily, raising an eyebrow at her. This makes her laugh that throaty laugh which he still didn't especially expect would emit from her.

"Alright. Game of cards it is."

* * *

><p>They had been playing cards for nearly an hour, just chitchatting away, laughing, having a nice time, Carla mostly supplying the information, she noticed.<p>

She had so far shared that she was born and raised in Minnesota (the Doctor giggling a bit when she said it) in a bit of a small town, was the youngest of six, having two brothers and three sisters and was the aunt to four very lovable nieces. She mentioned going to art school for a year and a half, it not being right for her at the time, and spoke of a couple other odds and ends about life.

He really only revealed that he loved bananas and a good cup of tea, nothing exactly personal, and quite a few ramblings that didn't make much sense whatsoever (for example, mentioning how he collaborated between drafts of Hamlet when they started talking about books, though she was sure she must have heard wrong).

"One three," the Doctor said, placing one card face side down on the ever growing pile of cards that sat between them on a hospital bed table, "So, what was the cause of your renal failure?" he asked a bit softly, Carla seeing a very curious look on his face over her cards, "If you're comfortable telling me," he added a bit hastily. She took two cards, setting them down on the pile.

"Two fours," she straightened her cards a bit, "Well, it was a genetic thing. _Is_ a genetic thing, I should say," she noting he placing one card down, saying, 'one five', "Basically, my mother had one gene and my father had a different one. I got them both and it made my kidneys fail later in life," He nodded in acknowledgement, "Didn't know until a few years ago until I was starting to get sick. It started as looking like the flu, but after a few tests, they said, 'you're in end stage renal failure' and sent me by ambulance to the hospital, as it was to the point I could have, well. . . past on. . . It was pretty shocking, to say the least." She said quietly, shaking her head to rid her painful memories, not wanting to subject the Doctor to them anymore. Putting on a smile, she took three cards, placing them down on the pile.

"Three sixes." she confidently said, the Doctor eying her very suspiciously.

"Cheat!" he said a bit too loudly and with conviction as he pointed an accusing finger toward her, a smile on his face like he had had her. She grinned at him, gesturing for him to take a look. He did so, a look of utter disgust blowing up on his face, "Oh come off it! That's just not fair." he pouted, taking the pile of cards for himself, this making her laugh.

"Not funny." He pouted a bit more as he shuffled his now rather large pile of cards, Carla noting that a couple cards seemed to look off as he was shuffling.

"Do you know any card tricks?"

"Everyone knows at least one card trick, really. I used to know them quite a bit better in a previous form, wore an impossibly long scarf at the time, which was made for me by a lovely lady, a witty little knitter she was, easier to show slight of hand when I had something to distract people with." He demonstrated his ability by holding up a card, and folding his hand around it. When he opened his hand, the card had gone, Carla smiling at the trick. He then went further, reaching behind her ear, the card reappearing, this making her laugh.

"Fantastic."

"Ah, thank you!" He said smugly, fanning out his cards to keep playing, placing two cards down, "Two sevens."

"Do you have any family, Doctor?" she decided to ask (feeling it a bit out of the blue, really, but their questions really not following a strict order all the same), placing one card down and going, "One eight." all the while looking at her cards. When he didn't answer, she looked up to find a blank, serious stare on the Doctor's face, looking as if he wasn't really seeing his cards.

"Not anymore." He softly uttered after a moment, moving a card or two around in his hand, that blank stare remaining, Carla not exactly sure what to say.

"I'm so sorry." was all she could think of. He looked up at her, giving her a sad smile and a nod of thanks.

"One nine." he said softly, a new look overtaking his features as his hand remained on the pile of cards.

"Are you alright?" she asked, him looking over as if he forgot she was still there.

"Oh yes. I'm always alright." she gave him a sad smile as he went back to staring at his cards, her thinking she must have hit a sensitive chord with her question.

Deciding it in a split moment; she placed her hand on his, this making him jump the tiniest bit, taking a quick look at her hand and then into her eyes.

"I'm . . . always alright too." She decided to say, this making him smile, "I'm just saying that I can be a pretty good listener if you need it, and that I wouldn't push you to talk about anything, you know, if you do decide to talk to me." He moved his hand, taking hers now, giving it a squeeze.

"Thank you for the offer." She smiled, "But it's nothing. Really." He smiled a reassuring smile at her, taking his hand back to hold his cards.

"Now, stop distracting me so you can get away with cheating." she just gaped at him and his wicked grin he was trying to hide behind his cards.

"I am not cheating! Even if the game's called 'Cheat', I'm not _actually_ cheating!"

"Say what you will, Ms. Snow, I just can't see how you happened to have three sixes just at the right moment. Possible, but not probable." she knew he was just trying to get her goat, and maybe just trying to distract her from how he was feeling. But, she decided to go along with it and defend her 'honor' of cards, and doing just that the remainder of her run (along with them each calling 'Cheat!' each turn, the game going nowhere from there), seeing as how it looked as if he wasn't going to share terribly many of his feelings.

And you know, it was perfectly okay if he didn't want to that day.

* * *

><p>And there be chapter four!<p>

The little spiel at the beginning and the mentioning of The Face of Boe from the episode "Gridlock", I just wanted to make it a bit . . . The Doctor had a bit of a tough day, and Carla asking about family hit home his feelings all the more. :) So, like said in the first chapter, she's not a Time Lady or anything as such, just wanted to have. . . feeling-ness. So there's that reasoning.

And I hope you guys and gals know the game of 'Cheat'. Well, that's what it's called in the UK, I guess. I grew up with it as 'BS', or the more vulgar saying of 'Bulls*t'. I wanted them to be playing card games to get to know one another, and I thought that 'Cheat' would be the perfect one to do so. :)

But yes, I hope you lovelies enjoyed. Editing chapter five at the moment, so it should be up sooner rather than later. :D

Paraiso - Thank you, my dear. I did think that that line was a little off too, so I did fix it a bit (I enjoy it when readers point something out/critique :D). I was just using 'lift' so much as it was from The Doctor's perspective and since he uses English sayings; 'lift' it was going to be. :D Also, I'm glad you liked the dream sequence, and the snow bit. I must say, the snow line made me laugh too. ;D

Even Angels Cry - Thank you, my lovely. :D (and your last review was perfectly lucid, so no worries :) ). And thanks so much for all the compliments and review. It means a great deal.

SummerParamour - *goes bonkers with you* YAY for Minnesotans! :D

Thanks everyone for reading! You're all brilliant, I must say.


	5. A Wild Ride

Chapter five for one and all, yay! :)

I have to say that I really like this chapter, and I hope you guys and gals do too. :D

**The game of "Cheat" (also known as 'BS' in the states): **one player deals out all the cards to all who are playing. Going in the cards order (nine, ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, etc), each player lays down cards when it's time to lay that card down on their turn. Example: Time to lay down a Jack - you say "One Jack." or however many Jacks you may have. Now, if you don't have any Jacks (or whichever card turn it is), you try to 'Cheat', laying down a card and lying about what card it is. You might get away with it, but if one of your opponents thinks you're cheating, they call out "Cheat!". If they're right, you take the pile of cards. If they're wrong in their assumption, then they take the pile of cards. First one to get rid of their cards is the winner. :D

Yay for explanations! Just thought I'd clear up the game if people didn't know what the game was. ;)

So, on with the fic!

I don't own the Doctor Who. Terribly devastating, I know. D:

* * *

><p>"And the dog landed right in the pasta! One nine."<p>

"Jumping right from the floor and into the bowl on the kitchen table? Nooo. Two tens."

"Really! She was quite the grand little jumper. Then another dog we had, she was such a good dog, and a big dog at that. Well one year when she was left alone, she knocked over the Christmas tree. Happened a couple times, actually, had a very lopsided tree that year, to say the least. One Jack."

"Cheat!"

"With one card? You sure about that, Doctor?"

"Yes, because I have all of the Jacks."

"Oh come on."

That was how the last three visits had gone. Martha's shifts kept coinciding with Carla's run time, so it fit quite perfectly. The Doctor would show up around the middle of her run (she making sure to stay awake after the last time), take out his cards, and they'd play 'Cheat' and chat. It was fun for the both of them, getting to know one another. Well, it seems Carla still didn't know terribly much about the Doctor, as he still wouldn't give up too much information about himself except for his little ramblings that didn't make sense, and which even if they did, couldn't be possible ("Herbert Wells, blimey, what an irritating man!"). He would also talk some about his friend (his 'companion', he'd like to refer her as), Martha Jones, how she was brilliant and training to become a doctor in that very hospital. He also talked some about their travels, which seemed terribly exciting, though a bit hard to believe ("Could see stars brighter than you ever could there, even brighter than on the moon." Which she rather doubted, but it was fun to hear all the same). Then, every now and again, the name "Rose" would pop up, he seeming to stop himself from going into too much detail of who Rose may be or may have been.

This visit, though, was a bit different, and a tad short, as the Doctor was running late.

Dashing down the hallway, making his left into the smaller one, passing the very large desk and offering a little wave to all who were there; he takes yet another turn, finding right away that the hospital curtain was closed where Carla usually sat. Before he could take the chance and go beyond that curtain though, it swung back with a 'whoosh', revealing the woman he came to see, but not hooked up like he usually saw, but sitting nicely in a wheelchair.

"She has two perfectly good legs, I'm sure. FDR did through his first term, saw him waltz like no other. Don't let her fake it." he teased about her to the nurse as he walked up by Carla, her shaking her head with a little smirk on her face.

"Say that again when I'm flat on my face from dizziness," She snarked a bit with a smile, "Fancy meeting you here." she adds with a tad of a sleepy tone.

"Likewise, as I thought I may have missed you. How did it go?"

"I-"

"It went okay," the nurse interrupted, Carla looking away with a bit of a disgruntled look, "We took a tad too much fluid off, though. She started cramping up, had to take her off a few minutes early. She also had a bit of a temp, meaning-"

"Meaning I wouldn't have been much fun today, anyway, so it's good you were late." she finished the nurse's words, the nurse giving her a smile.

"Oh, I don't know about that." the Doctor gave her a playful wink, making her chuckle, "Back to your room, then?"

"Yeah, just waiting for the right person to transport me there." she said with her chin in her hand, looking so terribly tired. He knew that dialysis was an exhausting process, but he was seeing it for the first time as she had been fine for the first few he had witnessed. This time however, she actually looked like she was sick and (she'd probably feel quite abashed at his thinking) did belong in the patient category. . . He was also just noticing how rather pale she was.

_"Could do with some sun. I could take her to Midnight, such a brilliant planet. Bet she'd love to sketch the Sapphire Waterfall. . . Though, maybe she can't have too much sun. Even so, I don't think her eyes would look such a deep green with a tan . . ."_

Looking her over in her tired state as all those thoughts twirled about, an idea popped into his head.

"Well, you're looking at him. The Doctor, world traveler, and transporter of. . . objects." this made her laugh, "Is that alright?" he asked the nurse as she started clean up on the machine, "Can I bring her to her room?"

"Of course you can. Just let me make a call and you can be on your way."

A quick call and a speedy note on her charts; they were ready to go.

"You'll tell me if I'm driving alright?" the Doctor joked as his lanky fingers wrapped around the wheelchair handles, Carla looking up at him as he did.

"As long as you don't crash, I won't complain." she smiled a tired smile up at him, him giving her a grin.

"You may be complaining quite a lot then, I don't have the best record with crashing," she laughed again.

"Allons-y!" he called out excitedly, and off they went.

* * *

><p>"Which way from here?" They had arrived at the elevators, The Doctor parking her in the middle of them all.<p>

"Press the up button." and so he did, "Three floors up is our destination."

He leans against the wall, hands sliding into his pockets as they wait. He gives her a small smile.

"I am sorry I was late, Carla. Had to set a few things right, and my landing time was off. Really should fiddle with the TARDIS clock. . ." she gave him a bit of an odd look, quite confused at his last words. Tardis? What on Earth was that?

"It's okay, really. Like I said, I wouldn't have been much fun today." she gives him a small smile herself, leaning her chin in her hand, "Why were you late, though?"

"Saving a spaceship takes time," he seemed to say a bit more to himself, sighing, Carla really not at all sure if she had heard right, "Just like them to drill without scanning for life..." he stares off into the distance, a cold gleam forming in his eyes. Carla deciding she did not like that look one bit, it didn't resemble the Doctor at all. Quite frankly, it scared her.

"Why do you keep saying things like that?" she decided to distract him, him looking back at her with a questioning look. Good, that stare had gone with her query, "Spaceships, Shakespeare, Houdini. You act as if you've met them and have gone where no man has gone before." He grinned at her.

"Because I have." She must have misheard that time. She had to have.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm a time traveler." he simply said with a smile, her eyebrows leaping to her hairline in disbelief.

"And I'm the Queen of England." she decided to say, the elevator announcing it's arrival with a 'bing'.

"Well, I know for a fact you're not, as I've met her as well. Have met quite a few of the queens, actually, a couple in which didn't really care for me all that much, well, in fact at all. But, if you must insist that you are; your chariot awaits, your majesty." she chuckled, not exactly knowing what else to do as he bounded behind her with a grin, pushing her chair into the small compartment and pressing the button for the right floor. He started one of his ramblings ("Speaking of Shakespeare, did you know he was actually Richard the III?"), drumming a bit on the wheelchair's handlebars as he did so, Carla not especially listening this time. She didn't mind he was late, as people were every now and again (and she was still surprised he kept visiting her, honestly), she just didn't appreciate that he wasn't speaking the truth and just telling wild stories. . .

* * *

><p><em>"Why is she so quiet?" <em>The Doctor thought to himself as they started down the terribly long, deserted hallway, the wall to their right nothing but window looking out onto London, _"Was it something I said? Something I did? Oh. . . Oh! It's probably because I was late. . ." _He looked toward the window to see her reflection, seeing her face hold a bit of a sad look, _"I'm sure that's what it is. Well, let's fix that." _He grinned, picking up some speed, looking at the window to see her reaction. Her eyes held a bit of surprise and question at what the Doctor was starting to do.

"You know what would make this journey to your room more adventurous?"

"What would that be, Doctor?" she asked a bit skeptically, looking up at him so her face was upside down to him. He gave her a lopsided smile and a raise of his eyebrow.

"Acceleration."

He broke into a full out run, making her look straight ahead in astonishment, gripping onto the arms of the chair as he did. When he was sure they were going fast enough; he hopped onto the tipping lever, took out his sonic screwdriver, and quickly pointed it at the wheels, not only making them go faster, but to keep them at a steady speed.

"Oh my God!" he heard her roar with laughter, they rolling along about as fast as a scooter, hair flying about some as they went, the Doctor smiling down at her excitement.

"Doctor, wall!" She shouted in a panic, pointing in front of them. Looking up quickly to see that they indeed had come nearly to the end of the hallway; he takes out his sonic once again, pointing it at the wheels to slow the chair down, the wheelchair not slowing quite fast enough.

"Hold on!" he shouted, leaning sharply to the right, making a wide turn, the chair raising on one wheel as they went, almost tipping as they did, both yelling in the spirit of the moment.

Bounding off the back of the chair, he started jogging along with it to slow it down as he saw the ward that held her room. Being able to slow it down enough, he stopped them for a moment before they reached the nurses station.

"All right?" he puffed out, moving in front of her to check on her. Looking up at him with a tad of a wide eyed stare.

She started laughing.

"That was **amazing**! Oh my Lord, how did we go so fast?" she laughed some more, he joining along in the laughter.

"I run a lot." Was his answer, beaming as he went back behind the chair, pushing her to the nurses station.

"Was that you? !" A lanky nurse with graying strawberry blond hair said as she came rushing to their aid, "Such a commotion! We didn't know what to think!"

"That was my doing," the Doctor spoke up, giving the nurse a little wave as she acknowledged him, "Hello! Yes, that was me. Just thought some excitement was in order for the patient." he gestured toward Carla, she giggling behind her hand.

"And you are?"

"Oh, I'm the Doctor." he grinned, Carla doubling over in her giggle fit.

"I see," She looked down at Carla, "Is that your pet name for your boyfriend or is he an actual doctor?" This stopped her giggling in an instant.

"He's not -" she started.

"I'm not -" he interrupted, feeling flustered.

"We're not. . ." Carla started, the Doctor seeing the pink in her cheeks.

"Together." The Doctor finished her sentence, feeling a blush of his own.

"Well even so," the nurse went on, "You can't be running around the hospital causing such a ruckus! Thought someone was being murdered, for the Lord's sake."

"Sorry." Carla spoke up with an amused look, the Doctor grinning down at her.

"Oh yes, so very sorry. Won't happen again." the Doctor swore, Carla giggling behind her hand once more.

"Best make sure that it doesn't." The nurse eyed them both, a smile hiding within her face, this making the Doctor grin once again, "Now, since Ms. Snow had a tad of a temp this morning, I think it'd be in her best interest if she calmed down some and had a rest." she gave a serious look to the Doctor, he taking a moment to realize she meant for him to leave.

"Oh! You mean for me to leave? Right. Well, I'll be off then."

"Thanks for the ride, Doctor." Carla gave him a wide smile, she still looking a tad tired, but now her eyes held the excitement of the moment. The Doctor put a hand on her shoulder, giving it a little squeeze.

"Anytime," the nurse raised an eyebrow at him, "Well, you know what I mean." This made Carla giggle one more time, her giving a quick pat to his hand that was still on her shoulder.

The nurse took over the wheelchair, Carla giving him one last little wave before the nurse wheeled her toward her room a few doors down, The Doctor watching and waiting for them to disappear.

Once they were gone, he went right over to the nurses station, and flashed his psychic papers.

"Hello! Yes, excuse me, health department here, just need to check out some files of a patient of yours."

* * *

><p>*le gasp!* Suspense! O.O Why is the Doctor wanting to look at Carla's medical files? ! Well, you'll have to check that out in the next chapter. ;)<p>

The dog stories at the beginning, those actually happened. Though, she landed in pizza and not pasta. :)

Even Angels Cry - Thanks lovely. :D You are most awesome. ^u^

al pal - I'm sorry I haven't updated "Hedwig's Wish". D: It's hard to write sometimes. :( That one should be updated sooner rather than later though, so don't fret my dear. :D

And there was Chapter Five. :D I hope you enjoyed, and if you'd like, please leave a review. It'd make me ever so happy. :)


	6. Well Enough

Hello, my lovelies! Sorry this took a while, been a bit busy and, well, it's a bit of a long chapter. ;)

So, this will be last hospital chapter for a while, as I wanted to get out of the hospital, which is why it's longer. :) So, enjoy and read and review and all sorts of stuff! More author note type things at the end. :)

I don't own the Doctor Who, which is absolutely tearing me up inside. D: . . . No, not really. :)

* * *

><p>"Why the Judoon always have to wipe records clean, I'll never know! This would be so much more simple if I were able to just read through her files on computer." The Doctor grumbled as he sat at the nurses station, hunched over quite the thick folder, his spectacles perched on the tip of his nose as he read through Carla Snow's medical records. He wasn't exactly annoyed by having to read through folders. Quite far from that, honestly. He just wasn't especially ecstatic about what he was finding.<p>

She had lied. She had not been 'just a bit tired' through the rest of the day when the hospital was returned. In fact, she had been found unconscious, barely breathing, barely_ alive_ and didn't wake until the following day. He also found that she was near death when she went into the hospital with her symptoms (based on all her blood tests and results, he concluded himself), near death when she had to have her pacemaker put in (her valves had become blocked from a certain medication, causing her heart to beat at a dangerously low rate), and near death when she had had pneumonia caused by an infection in her dialysis catheter.

"She certainly meets the criteria for traveling in the TARDIS: must be prone to near death experiences." he sputtered out a petulant guffaw as he turned the page a tad roughly.

"So you are an actual doctor?" came a familiar voice from in front of the desk. Looking up, the Doctor gave a quick nod of acknowledgement to the nurse who had wheeled Carla into her room, looking back down at the files.

"When I want to be." he muttered to himself, turning another page to read more about the woman from the North.

"Either way," she began, The Doctor not looking up this time, "It was nice to see her laughing. Nice to see a friend with her." The Doctor's ears perked up a tad at this bit of news, "She's a rather quiet girl, you know, bit shy as well. Wanders about a tad with her book at evening, says hi to the night nurses," he looked up at her, finding that she hadn't taken her eyes off him, "A polite girl, nice too. I just haven't especially seen her laugh in the week and a half she's been here. Though, heaven knows I'm not here 24/7, maybe she gets on with others, maybe even has a bloke that visits in the morning." she gives him a smile, picks up a chart, and starts heading toward a patient's room.

"What's your name?" he calls before she's gone.

"Florence, dear." she says with a tad of a wave over her shoulder, disappearing into the room.

"Florence, thanks for that little tidbit." the Doctor said quietly to himself, leaning back in the chair, running his hands through his hair, ruffling it up a tad as one thought kept tumbling over and over again in his mind. . .

_"Is she honestly well enough?"_

* * *

><p>"Seems you had a fun ride up, Ms. Snow." Nurse Florence gave her a knowing smile as they entered her room, parking the chair right by her bed. Carla gave a chuckle, biting her bottom lip in thought. But quite suddenly went into a blush, giving the nurse an apologetic smile.<p>

"It _was_ fun. I am sorry we were so loud, though. Wasn't really thinking when he started running." she said a bit quietly, playing with a strand of hair as the nurse adjusted the pillows and pulled back the large patchwork quilt Carla had brought from home.

"Well, you are a terribly tame patient. I suppose a rise of spirits is in order every now and again." Florence said as she put a hand on Carla's back and taking one of her hands, helping her from the chair and into bed, the gal from the North settling back right away, the short distance being a bit too much, making her dizzy in an instant, her eyes shutting tight to calm her senses down.

"Looks like your temperature is still high." Carla heard her say, looking over to find she was looking at her chart, "You settle back, Ms. Snow and I'll order up some Tylenol, see if that helps with the temp. After that, I think a good sleep is in order as well."

"But I wanted to sketch for a while." Carla grumbled a bit, not really making a reach for her sketchbook on the bedside table as the nurse pulled the patchwork blanket back up to cover her.

"Possibly later today." she smiled, picking her chart back up again, seeming to check a couple more things,

"This 'Doctor'; he seems like a nice man." the nurse commented, Carla's eyebrows raising up a bit at her query, "You must have known each other for quite sometime?"

"Well," Carla started, her hands going to rest on her stomach, giving the nurse a thoughtful look, "Only a week, actually." she laughed softly to herself.

"Really? You two seem to get along well, thought you must have been friends for quite sometime."

"Yeah. . . It's nice to have a friend when so far from home," She said in a thoughtful tone, turning a bit onto her side to get a bit more comfortable, "It's even nicer when that friend doesn't treat you like you're sick. I haven't had a friend like that for. . . for a long while." she says quietly, feeling the nurses watchful eye on her, Carla feeling her cheeks go warm at her admission.

"You just rest now. I'll be back soon with those meds, alright?" she hears the nurse say in quite the comforting tone, she nodding in agreement, hearing her footsteps fade out of the room, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She hadn't gotten to really know anyone since moving here a few months ago, so, she had become more or less of a loner. The only people she really talked to somewhat were her coworkers at the coffee shop. Sure she got along with them well, but they weren't friends, they just worked together. Though, her boss was exceptionally nice (she was beyond understanding with her medical situation, she had to say), but again, not really a friend.

It was lonely. And worse, she was getting used to that loneliness. . .

But then there was The Doctor, just checking up on her during the extravagant event of being on the moon (which so many people think was a hoax now, thanks to the news). He was nice, and did seem to genuinely like visiting her and getting to know her. It was a good feeling, to have a friend to talk to in person again. To have a friend that didn't seem bothered by her illness or to treat her like she was fragile and dying. He didn't skirt around the issue and just asked what he was wondering. She liked that about him. She liked that a lot.

"I feel normal around him. He treats me like I'm normal." she said thoughtfully, burrowing a bit deeper into the blanket. . .

She wondered how long it would last . . .

* * *

><p>"A cuddly monkey? No, doesn't seem right. Get well card? Blimey, not right at all. Balloon?" He pondered this item for a long moment as he studied the brightly colored square shaped object as if it held the answers to all the Earth's questions, ". . . Nah, but getting closer."<p>

The Doctor was perusing the hospital shop (he did love a good little shop), the idea hitting him like an asteroid that had unfortunately went off course right when he entered through the hospital doors: Find something for Carla, as she was scheduled to be discharged the following day. So he noticed in her all too thick files that he had read three times over. That was as good as any of a reason to be browsing about the shop for a little trinket as celebration for her release. He thought so, anyway. He also thought that even if she had lied about 'being a bit tired', he rationalized that she must have had a reason to do so and he was sure she would share sooner or later. So here he was, looking over objects of all sorts, thinking of something fitting to get her.

"Can I help you with anything, sir?" he heard a male voice call over to him as he was looking over a serving bell with an etched angel on the front (_"Who honestly needs this in hospital? !"_ he thought as he looked at the bell oddly). Looking over, he found a blond haired (obviously bleached) boy behind the counter, a maroon apron tied neatly around his waste with a curious look spread across his face.

The Doctor was about to answer with a, 'Hello! No, just browsing about', when he spotted something on the top shelf behind the boy clerk that made him break out into a wider than normal grin.

Placing the bell down a bit hastily, he dashed up toward the clerk, leaning on the counter, he pointed at the object quite excitedly.

"I'd like one of those, please." the clerk made his way behind him, placing a hand on the round object.

"This one, sir?"

"No, the one with the blue base." the clerk brought it down, placing it softly on the counter, ringing him up, the Doctor paying with his grin still in place.

"Would you like it wrapped?"

"No, I'll just take it as is, no bag either. Thanks!" with that, he slid the object into his pocket, making his way out of the shop, heading toward the lifts to see his friend from the North.

"This'll be brilliant!" he declared joyously, a little skip appearing in his step. . .

* * *

><p>It was not brilliant whatsoever.<p>

Running the opposite way from the dialysis ward, he went straight back to the lifts, putting his sonic screwdriver at full power on the button, making the machine meet him faster than ever before. Hopping straight in, he did the same thing, making his way to Carla's floor in record time, bolting again down the long hall that they had ran down just the other day, saying quick apologies to passing doctors and nurses for his sprinting and occasional bumping on his way.

She wasn't there downstairs.

She had had her run earlier as she was ill, and they wouldn't tell him anymore than that, of course, as he wasn't family.

So here he was, racing past very confused staff to see if she was alright.

Skidding about two meters into the ward where Carla stayed; he started walking toward the room where he was sure he saw nurse Florence wheel her in the other day, hearing someone call out to him a second time that afternoon.

"Sir? Can I help you with something?" looking over his shoulder, he saw a short man with dark hair in scrubs behind the desk, starting to stand as if to stop him. He called back, not losing his pace for a second.

"Just visiting a friend, thanks!"

"Wait! Sir? ! You can't - " the Doctor didn't listen as he darted in, immediately screeching to a halt at the dreadful sight he saw:

Three nurses surrounded Carla's bed. A bed in which she lay with a sheet covering her whole, too still form.

The Doctor leaned against the wall, such a dire weight forming in the pit of his stomach as his eyes stuck to the body on the bed.

"I just saw her the day before last. She seemed fine, she _was_ fine. . ." the nurses in the room had noticed him, he hearing little bits of 'What's he doing here?', 'What should we say?', 'We have to say something.'

_"What can you say? My friend's dead!"_ He thought a tad discouragingly, his eyebrows furrowing at his thought, thinking too that these nurses needed a bit more manner in the empathy department.

Before they could talk to him though, the Doctor felt a hand on his shoulder, looking to see the hand belonged to the nurse that had tried to stop him, quite the apologetic face set into his features. Oh, he must have had practice with that.

He piloted the Doctor back out into the open ward, keeping that hand on his shoulder, the Doctor not feeling it the least bit comforting.

"I'm so sorry." the nurse said in his very practiced apologetic voice.

"I'm just shocked, is all." he said as he wiped the nurses hand away from his shoulder, his hands burrowing deep into his pockets as he knew the nurse was going to keep speaking to him.

"She went peacefully, if that helps at all." the nurse tried, failing, the Doctor might add.

"She was fine the other day. Amazing, really." he ran a quick frustrated hand through his hair, not being able to comprehend it. How could she be gone so quick?

"I'm so sorry for your loss," the nurse gave the Doctor another quick little pat on his shoulder, he giving the nurse a bit of a look, "How long did you know Mrs. Marwick?"

"Not long at all, really. But . . ." the Doctor looked at the nurse, his eyebrow raising dramatically in recognition of what he just said, "Wait, what?"

"Mrs. Marwick."

"What?"

"The woman lying in that bed."

"What? !"

"Mrs. Marwick! Have you gone into shock, mate?"

"I'm not going into shock, thank you very much. I'm not here to see 'Mrs. Marwick' either, as much as that would _thrill_ me," he went on, feeling a bit snarky and relieved that that wasn't the woman from Minnesota laying in that bed, "I'm here to see Carla. Carla Snow. Is she still here?"

"Yeah, she is."

"Which room?"

"Room 513, the one right by 512, where you walked in on Mrs. Marwick." the nurse said evenly, raising an eyebrow himself. The Doctor looked back to where he had went in, seeing that 512 and 513 were right by one another.

"Thank you. . . Sorry." He quickly said, rushing into the other room, finding, to his great relief, a Minnesotan sleeping away peacefully.

He sighed a great sigh, a silly grin spreading wide across his face as he sunk into a chair that was near her bed. She was alright. She was fine. She was _alive_. His grin spread a bit more at that last thought.

Finally seeing that she was okay; he studied her a tad as she slept. She was huddled deep in a patchwork duvet, looking as if she were in a cocoon, he really only being able to see her from her mouth and upward as she snoozed away, seeing also that an IV bag was set up, dripping away into the tube, bringing it's medication to the woman on the bed. His ears perked up at hearing something other than the dripping, realizing that faint music was playing. Looking further, he saw a pair of headphones a little ways above her on the bed, still playing away. Being the curious man he was, he picked the headphones up (noticing a small music player attached), bringing them close to his ear, he heard the end of a song, _". . . That'll be the day, that I die. . . That'll be the day. . . That'll be the day. . ." _It fading to an electric guitar, indicating that a new song had started, sounding very much newer than that of the 50's classic that just ended, _"I fed the clues, of a lost day killed in motion. . ." _

He smiled as he placed the headphones back.

"Quite the eclectic taste you have, Ms. Snow."

Standing, he made his way around the room, examining all about. It was a normal enough hospital room. Window, bed, toilet, that positively sterile feel hovering in the air, a few knick knacks on the wall behind her to save her in case she were to start passing on . . . Yep, just an ordinary hospital room.

Well, except for the few photos that were framed on the small bedside cabinet, not to mention her glasses sitting right along with them. That wasn't a usual feature in a hospital room. Examining closer, he saw four little girls in one of them, all of them in aprons in a kitchen as they grinned for the camera, noting that Carla was on the very edge, looking as if she was ducking out of the frame. Picking the picture up, he smiled, realizing that she was probably baking with her nieces when someone decided to take the impromptu photo.

Setting it down, he saw, what he presumed, were other family members, looking to be siblings as they did share some similarities, and looked only a few years older than Carla (also spotting a woman who could only be her mother, and an older photo that may be her father). At a lake, at some sort of fair, baseball game, it looked like. They looked happy, but noting that Carla was only in the one with her nieces. . . Well, perhaps he had looked them over too quickly.

Spotting a photo behind the lake one just as he was about to sit back down, he saw Carla sitting awfully close to someone that couldn't possibly be a family member. He was stick thin, long nose and was a ginger. He didn't resemble the Snows at all. He raised an eyebrow at the photo, but couldn't help a grin when it dawned on him that they were wearing big thick, fake mustaches and laughing quite hard.

"May have to ask about him later." he mused, going back to his seat, leaning back as he gazed at the woman sleeping before him.

"She had a high temperature the other day, didn't she?" He wondered aloud as an eyebrow cocked, now leaning toward her, examining her a tad more closely.

Her cheeks did look a little red, he noticed. Placing his cool hand on her forehead, leaving it for a moment. . . She did feel warmer than average, "'Bout 38.5 Celsius I'd say, give or take a point degree or two. Feels like it's coming down, though." he says to himself as his hand remains, wondering about her temperature.

He quickly moves his hand though as she started to stir the slightest bit. She began to wake exceptionally slowly, her eyelids looking as if they weighed a hundred forty-three stones. . .

She smiled the smallest smile when her eyes focused on him, he not being able to help a grin spread across his face.

"Hi." She said in a soft tone, sounding terribly tired.

"Hello." He gladly says back.

"Stalking women that are sleeping again, I see." she said in her sleepy tone. He couldn't help but laugh.

"No, just 'woman', as in singular, specifically you, oh Woman of the Great North." She smiled a bit more wide at him, she starting to sit up a bit, the Doctor just pressing the button to raise the head of the bed to help her, catching her headphones and music player before they had the chance to fall on her.

"I've no clue why you would stalk me, I'm an awful mess, more so right now." she says again, him still smiling, sitting up comfortably now, resting back on the tilted bed head nicely.

"Nah, you look fantastic," he leans back, keeping that smile on his face, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," If stuck in bed with a fever is fine, then put me on the stretcher, the Doctor thought, "They stopped my antibiotics too early, so they put a new IV in me," she raised her hand very briefly to show him, "And I'm getting better once again. Nothing to worry about, it's under control."

"So no chance of being discharged tomorrow?"

"How did you know they were planning to discharge me?"

"Oh, heard it through the grapevine of nurses roaming about the ward, you know how it is." she nodded in understanding.

"No. They want to keep me in a couple more days, until my temp comes down. Better safe than sorry, you know." now the Doctor nodded, still giving her a smile.

"Since you're not going home," he started, his hand reaching deep into his pocket, "I suppose you wouldn't want. . . something?" he fumbled a bit with his words, flustered a little at handing his gift over.

"You got me something?" her eyebrows lifted in surprise, he smiling wide.

"Oh yes. Here you are, Ms. Snow." He passed over the gift (right after she put her glasses on, that is), she studying it for a moment before she grinned, laughing that low laugh. He really liked how it sounded, he decided.

"A snow globe! With Big Ben! That's wonderful. Thank you, Doctor." she bit her lower lip as she smiled, shaking up the snow globe, watching with a happy gleam in her eyes as the snow fell about in the glass dome.

"It's nothing." he couldn't help the silly grin sticking to his face as he watched her play with it.

"I love it, thank you," She paused as she watched the flakes waft down to the bottom, shaking it up again when it stilled too much, "You know, Big Ben was the first attraction that I went to when I moved here." she said, looking over at him with a smile.

"You don't say."

"Yeah. It was one of the first things I wanted to see. I s'pose partly because of that story a couple years ago," his grin faulted slightly at hearing that, "With the spaceship, you know. Well, I guess you would know, living here, right?"

"Oh yes. Was pretty close by when it happened too." he said quietly, shaking his head a moment later to rid the memories of standing with _her_ as it happened, those seconds before of just simply discussing his age.

"Anyway," she began again, looking back to the snow globe. The Doctor noting that her gaze seemed more focused on Big Ben now, "It was partly because of that incident, but more so because of, well . . . Because of my dad." His ears perked up at hearing this, leaning toward her in case she decided to divulge more.

"My dad **loved** history. Especially World War Two stuff. We'd read about it, watch specials about it, all sorts of things. One thing especially that he'd be focused on was Big Ben. He was so impressed that it stood proud and tall and kept on going all throughout the war, all through The Blitz, almost as if it was standing up for London," She pauses, a sad smile coming to her face, "He was always like that, though. Stand up for people who can't, stand up for what you believe in." she becomes silent again, her eyes focused on Big Ben within the globe.

The Doctor gives her a smile, clearing his throat to get her attention. Seeing her jump the teeniest bit, looking as if she almost forgot that he was there; he holds out his hand, still with that smile. She gives him a tiny smile, taking hold of his hand, him giving it a little squeeze.

"Your father sounded like a brilliant man." he says softly, still giving her that smile, she smiling a little more back.

"He really was," she looks out the window, a thoughtful expression forming on her face as she took her hand back from him, running it through her tousled hair slowly, "He was quite a bit different than other dads. He'd watch cartoons with my siblings and me, didn't watch terribly many sports, really only when our state teams played. He didn't really hunt like a lot of fathers did where we lived. He did take us fishing, but we always let them go when we caught them," She chuckles a little bit at this as she looks back to him, his attention continuously focused on Carla, keeping a small smile as she told her story to him, "He was very understanding. Very open to different things, different sorts of people. I mean, he'd make a friend where ever he went, just striking up a conversation out of the blue," She smiled wide, looking down at the snow globe a moment as she muttered more to herself _'_Wish I could just make friends where ever I went too_'_, the Doctor not helping but smile widely back himself, "He encouraged my art, so much. He was artistic himself, you know. . ." her words drifted off some, that thoughtful expression making it's appearance again,

"My mom says I take after him a lot, that I'm my dad's girl. Maybe in some ways, I s'pose." she quietly says, finally placing the globe of snow among her photos.

"Oh, I'd say quite a bit." she raised an eyebrow at his remark.

"What exactly do you mean?"

"Well, he was brilliant, and so are you." her cheeks instantly went pink, her eyes looking surprised.

"No I'm not!" she said in an incredulous tone, the Doctor noticing her hands clutching her duvet the smallest bit.

"Oh yes you are!" he says with a grin, leaning in a tad more, "I've known you for a little over a week and I haven't heard you complain once about your situation when I've heard people act as if they're dying with no more than a cold. You have this extraordinary attitude that just seeps out of you that I find absolutely fascinating. You're amazing with your art! Those cartoons are fantastic and I hope the world can see them one day. So, Ms. Snow, you most certainly are **brilliant**." he especially enunciates the "t" at the end of 'brilliant', keeping his eyes extremely focused on her. Her brows furrow slightly, looking as if she was honestly confused at his words.

"But I'm honestly not." he sighs, reaching out and snatching her hand up, holding it tight, giving her a determined look.

"Do you know, I positively dread hospitals?" Carla shook her head no, "Surgery went terribly pear shaped. They didn't know who I was, how I was, what species I am. Nothing. Do you know why I keep coming back?"

"Why is that, Doctor?" he gives her one of his goofy grins before he continues.

"To visit you, Carla Snow. Because you're _brilliant_, so I won't take you saying you're not anymore." she chewed on her lip, as if she were considering this to great extent. With a little sigh, she said quietly,

"If you say so," as she gave his hand a little squeeze back.

"Yes I absolutely say so. Now, I suppose you're not up for a game of cards, yeah?"

"Not especially," she gives him a smile, "Though, if you like Scooby Doo, I think there's a marathon on. Wanna watch for a while?"

"Oh, Scooby Doo, I haven't seen that in ages. That Scrappy Doo, I don't understand why everyone showed so much disdain towards him. He was just an excitable little guy, wanted to crack the case before anyone else." Carla smiled wide as The Doctor gave his answer by leaning back in his chair, placing his converse clad feet up on the edge of the bed to get comfortable as he kept going on about Scooby Doo and as Carla turned the TV on right as the theme music for the show was starting.

So there they sat for the rest of the afternoon, watching the adventures of a teenage gang of crime solvers and their talking dog, chatting about this and that more so than actually watching the program, a certain thought growing stronger in the Doctor's mind as the afternoon wore on. . .

_"She is well enough."_

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><p>And there was Chapter Six for all of you! Hooray! :D I hope you enjoyed.<p>

The Doctor is fun to write, and also a bit tough to as well. I think he'd be the one to look through hospital files to see if someone was well enough for TARDIS travel, don't you? I mean, he's never really had anyone with an illness before travel with him and I think he'd be curious to see what other aliments they had. :) SO, there's that. ;)

And I honestly have seen objects such as the bell in a hospital shop. . . I thought I would include it. XD

Also, about feeling normal: I went through kidney things in my teens and people really did treat me quite differently once they learned I was on dialysis (some even wouldn't talk to me afterwards, teens can be cruel, you know :P). So, no, I really didn't feel all that much normal and it was a terribly rare occurrence that I did and people treated me as such. So, meeting the Doctor and him just being more intrigued by her illness rather than treating as if that's all she was would be quite lovely, don't you agree? I know it was when I found good friends. :)

And no, it's not going to end up where they go and save her dad or something, just so you know. :) And for all those who know the second song that played: I love you, let's be friends. ;D

Even Angels Cry - Thank ya' for the lovely reviews. :D Oh, of course I love all reviews, and that includes anons. :D And since I can't especially reply back via PM, the following chapter it shall be. :)

Cetacea-of-Time - Hee, thanks lovely. :D I'm glad you're loving it. :)

And there we be. THANKS SO MUCH everyone for the continued alerts, favs, and reviews! They make me happier than a Dalek chasing the Doctor, though, they don't especially have feelings, do they? ;)


	7. Leftover Biscuits

Here is chapter seven, my darlings. :) Bit of a late. . . Early? Hmm... Update for you all. :D It was double this, actually, but I broke it up into two chapters, as it seemed like the right thing to do (it was a bit . . . well, the next part fit better in another chapter :) ). So, chapter eight is basically done, just some editing to do and it'll be up within the next few days. :D

So, there we be. Thanks so much everyone for reviewing, faving, and alerting! You're_ fantastic_!

More author notes at the end, as always. :)

Don't own the Doctor Who, I . . . Just don't.

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><p>"I'll be getting a move on in a few minutes here, Suzy." Carla called out in the back room of the coffee shop as she threw on her light coat, adjusting the hood somewhat as it always went a bit off.<p>

"That'll be fine." the more than tall woman with Crayola red hair said as she walked into said back room through a beaded curtain, her arms carrying a tray of leftover cookies for that day, "How are you feeling, by the way? Alright your first day back after your hospital stay?"

"Yeah, I'm doing good." Carla said with a smile as she started wrapping her purple scarf around her neck, "Those few days at home of vegging out in front of the TV and doodling did me good." she smiled wider, packing up her messenger bag for the day at the table where the employees gabbed and had their lunch.

"That's fantastic to hear, I'm so glad that it wasn't terribly serious." She beamed as she placed the tray on the table.

Suzy was quite the nice person, Carla thought as she studied the woman before her. She was older, late forties, possibly early fifties, she never said and would never say. If she was ever asked, she'd politely say with a laugh, "It's rude to ask a lady her age." Not that the Minnesotan gal ever asked. She didn't much care about ages, really, which probably had to do with her and her siblings ranging in ages quite differently, her oldest brother being ten years her elder.

Carla nodded with a smile, placing her sketchbook in last, finally raising the strap over her head and securing it across her chest carefully so as to not hit her catheter.

"I'll be going. Have a good evening." she said as she started walking toward that lovely beaded curtain to the front, the store owner stopped her with a wave though, beckoning her back to her table.

"Bring a couple biscuits home with you, sweetie. They'll go to waste." she offered, as she always did when there were cookies left over.

"You know I shouldn't. Can't have chocolate." she reminded her, looking at the cookies a bit longingly. Phosphorous in chocolate was not good for dialysis patients, one of the worst things about being one.

"A little won't kill you, you've told me that yourself. And it's your recipe, they turned out quite well."

"Well, it's my mom's recipe." she murmured, reaching out for a cookie (one with the fewest chips in). Taking a bite; she was more than glad that she did. Tasted nearly as good as her mom's. She smiled wide at the colorful woman before her, liking that she was terribly motherly to all her employees.

"Thanks, Suzy. Taste's great." She wrapped up a few more to share with her house mates, placing them in her bag (taking one more for the road for herself), making her way to the decorated door frame again when she was called on once more.

"You know, Carla, dear," she started, a bit of a mischievous gleam in her eye as Carla came back, "My friend's son is a nice guy-"

"Suzy." she said in a bit of a warning tone, the older woman putting her hands up to defend herself.

"Now, hear me out," Carla sighed, crossing her arms to listen, "He's a very nice guy, quite tall, though . . . Everyone's quite tall to you, aren't they?" she said with a chuckle, Carla's cheeks growing warm at her joke. Well, it _was_ true. She was only about 5'1", and that was on a good day, "Good with animals, good with kids for that matter as he has two nephews, has a decent job, and get this: He's a chef! Isn't that wonderful! Artistic field the man has to go with an artistic girl. Perfect, no?"

Carla's shoulders slumped with a sigh, giving the excited woman a small smile.

"He sounds okay, Suzy, but-"

"But?"

"I'm not looking for anyone. And I don't do well on dates, at all," hands falling to her sides as her shoulders slumped a bit more as her story went on, "The only way that it works is if I really know them, and that's an exceptionally rare occurrence, I must say, as not many friends that I've known want to be more than that." she sighed once more, sliding into one of the table's chairs briefly. Great, now she just felt crumby from telling her sorry tale of a love life. She bit into the cookie she was going to snack on on the way home, not seeing a point in waiting now.

"Well," Suzy started, sliding into the chair by her's, "Don't you think you could at least go out and see if a friendship blossoms?" she said with an encouraging smile, "I mean, you've been here, what, half a year? I haven't heard about _anyone_, not even about a friend," Carla felt her stomach clench just a little bit at the word 'friend', "Just about your family, and friends in the states. Mind, I like hearing about that, you know, about life at home. But you're so far away from there, a friend's a good thing to have." she gave Suzy a thoughtful look as she finished off her cookie, sighing a small sigh as she stood once more.

"I'll think about it, okay?" the older woman nodded in approval, Carla snatching up one more cookie for the road.

"If not him, what about Danny?"

"Danny?" Carla's eyebrows shot up in disbelief, "As in coworker Danny?"

"Yes coworker Danny! Haven't you seen the way he looks at you?" She did notice some of the looks he gave her, as she couldn't well not as those looks came with words. Gems such as, "Are you an alien, Carla? Because you're out of this world," "You know, those clothes would look smashing on my floor," and last but certainly not least, "Got a mirror in your pocket, love? Because I can see myself in your trousers." He was a terrible pervert.

"No!" she exclaimed in displeasure, not meaning to sound off so loudly, putting a hand to her mouth quickly as she blushed for the second time that day.

"It's the blue hair, isn't it?" It wasn't that at all. Far from that as she in fact loved how crazy colored hair looked quite a bit. It was the fact that not only was he quite the pervert, he didn't show much, if any, respect towards women, well, except Suzy. If he didn't, he wouldn't be working there.

She started making her way to the doorway as she spoke in a bit of a quiet voice, "I could care less what a person looks like, honestly. As long as they're a decent person with a good heart; that's more than alright with me." she smiled as she was halfway out the doorway, "I'll see you Wednesday. Bye." she finished quickly scurrying out, waving a friendly goodbye to Mary who was tallying up the register for that day, Mary doing the same with a smile on her face, Carla hearing a nice, 'See you later, have a good night' from the blonde woman.

Soon out the door, a small whoosh of chilly air hit her, the days starting to become a bit more cold, the Minnesotan not especially believing that just a couple weeks ago it was rather quite comfortable. Though, of course the chilly air was nice. It reminded her of home. She smiled as another gush of air came at her as she walked down the street, taking a little nibble of her cookie along the way.

She didn't live terribly far from the small coffee shop, so walking had become the habit of choice to get to and from work. Every now and again though, her dialysis day would still have her a little bit tired, so, in that rare occurrence, she would call a cab, as there really wasn't a bus to the shop. She had found a nice part of London that had a bit of a small town/city feel. The street her work was on reminded her of a 'main street', quite a few nice little shops up and down the road (one she frequented was a fun little thrift store). Her home was in a lodging, she a lodger with another, a nice older couple owning the house making up four all together. It was a nice place, and she was loving it.

But thinking back to Suzy's words,_ 'not even a friend'_. . . A sigh escaped her lips as she stopped at the corner of the intersection, not moving to cross even though there was not a car in sight as her mind drifted off.

It had been nearly three weeks since she had seen The Doctor. Almost three weeks since she had woken up to him, since they had watched cartoons, since he had given her that snow globe. . .

A honk of a horn and a yell from the driver from a car rolling by brought her out of her thoughts, making her jump slightly, realizing that she must have looked pretty dumb just standing on a street corner. Looking both ways once again, finally crossing the street of the deserted road. Wasn't a terribly odd sight, as it was late Sunday afternoon, nearly evening. It was pretty quiet at that time.

"I wonder what happened." She wondered aloud, her pace slow but steady, raising her hand to have a bite of that cookie, but finding that it wasn't there. She shook her head, feeling dumb again as she didn't know what happened. She either finished it without realizing or dropped it as she was in her thoughts. Sighing, running a hand through her hair, she started biting her lip as she marched on, still focusing on her thoughts.

"Maybe something happened to him. He could be in the hospital himself . . . God, could you imagine? Walking up to a nurses station, 'Um, yes, do you have a patient that goes by 'The Doctor'?' Lordy Lou. They'd lock me up for evaluation. . . Should have offered him my number." she humphed, a bit angry at herself for feeling terribly stupid to at least not offer. But suddenly, she stops dead in her tracks at her next thought,

"Maybe he didn't want to visit anymore." she bit her lip hard at that thought, her hands traveling deep into her pockets, "Well . . . If that's how it is, then. . . I guess that's how it is." she said so very softly, so very sadly as she started walking again toward home.

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><p>"Martha Jones, you were truly brilliant. I can't ever say that enough."<p>

"I was just doing what had to be done. Granted, I could have knocked a tad more-"

"No no no. You were more than amazing!" The Doctor grinned at her, fiddling a little bit with the controls of the console, "And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry if anything I said, any of my actions. . ." his words faded off, a terribly apologetic look forming on his face.

"Doctor, you didn't say anything or do anything that offended me," even at these words, the Doctor could see a sadness in her eyes. He thinking that maybe it had to do with her confession when she was trying to get him to change back to the Doctor from John Smith. Even if she brushed off the whole thing, there usually was some truth in desperation, "I'm just glad that everything's right again." she finishes with a smile, the Doctor smiling in return.

"So," he started, pulling a lever, pressing a button, and doing a little spin, "Where to? I know you like your tea, there's a whole coffee shop planet, kind of boring, in all honesty. Oh!" He starts once again, flipping another switch, "I know the perfect place! A glorious holiday destination. Apalapucia! They have everything there. Roller coasters, cinemas, gardens, even a -"

"Doctor," he hears Martha interrupt him, giving her a questioning look, "I want to go home." She simply says, the Doctor just staring for a moment.

"Of course. Home it is." he says with a forced smile, Martha looking at him a bit oddly, "It's been amazing, Martha. You have been wonderfully brilliant and I. . ." his eyebrows raise high as he realizes, "You mean to just, visit, don't you?"

"Yes, Doctor. Regroup a day or two, check in with my family." She says with a bit of a chuckle, the Doctor grinning once again.

"We can certainly do that," fiddling with more knobs and levers, flipping a switch here and there, "And it's been far too long since I've had my game of cards! Carla will surely have the upper hand. . . Well, if she's feeling up to a game, anyway. She did look quite peaky last I saw her."

"Carla Snow again." Martha said with a smile, that sad look shining in her eyes again, "You became friends fast."

"Oh yes," He grinned again, sending the TARDIS right into the vortex, "She's brilliant. Fantastic artist, funny, I've told you," she smiled over at him still, the Doctor having that feeling of recognition again,

"Carla Snow, Carla Snow . . . It sounds so familiar, it's on the tip of my tongue," his hands wring through his hair as thinks out loud, "You don't know a Carla Snow, by chance? Done anything you know?"

"No, not at all." she says with a shake of her head, "Maybe it's just a name you've heard before that sounds similar to another you know?"

"That could be," he buries his hands deep within his pockets, thinking that that couldn't possibly be it, "But I highly doubt it." He just knew that he had heard the name somewhere before. . .

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><p>And there was chapter seven! Hoorah! :D But yeah . . . Been a little while since the Doctor and Carla have played a game of cards. Goodness. O.O<p>

And has he heard the name before? ! . . . Well, I'm not going to divulge that information here, what's the point in that? ;)

I hope you're getting the little bits of episodes so you know where the story is taking place, as I don't want to blatantly put "**THIS IS THIS EPISODE**", you know? And I also hope that people who have watched Classic Who have been catching the little references I've been putting about the story. Hee. ;) Also, I'm hoping everyone is enjoying the story so far! It's been fun to write so far. :)

Even Angels Cry - I like having people try guessing things, is why I wanted the snow globe to be a surprise. ;D I'm glad you liked the chapter, and there will be something with her father later on, but not saving or her seeing him again, or anything as such. Another surprise, ha. :D

Cetacea-of-Time - She won't, don't worry. XD And I'm glad you're liking it so far. And I will say this: Not**_ all _**teens are cruel, I'm sorry I offended, my dear. :)

And there we be! I hope you enjoyed, my lovelies, and thanks so much again for the reviews, favs, and alerts! They mean a great deal. :) Until next time. Heart you all. :D


	8. The Main Attraction

Sorry it took a little while, my darlings. :) Just. . . editing took some time on this one (and I did write that Sherlock one shot, so that took some time from my editing ;) ).

More notes at the end, as usual, and an announcement about updates as well. :D

I don't own the Doctor Who. If I did, I'd have a special where the three newest Doctors meet like in classic Who. ;)

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><p>"Okay, milk, eggs, bread. Milk, eggs, bread . . . maybe cereal, haven't had cereal for a while." Carla repeated her mantra of grocery items, contemplating a couple extras besides the essentials as she started to slip on her converse to go out.<p>

Throwing her coat on, adjusting that pesky hood once more and wrapping her scarf securely around her neck, she was ready to go. Well, almost.

Grabbing her messenger bag off one of the hangers on her door, she secured it neatly across her chest, ready to leave for her shopping trip, the cloudy lighting from outside filtering in through the window box indicating it was early afternoon. She looked about her room, wondering if she forgot anything, seeming to do this at least a few times a week. She had a nice cozy room (which was furnished before she found the lodging, thank goodness), the walls a nice cream color, though about half of it was covered. Some posters (couple of bands, a few arts she really enjoyed), a few nick-knacks strewn about the walls (a couple Frisbees that she had done spin art on at the State Fair and which she brought with her, for example). One side held her bed, her patchwork quilt back where it belonged, a small nightstand by it held a lamp she picked up at the thrift store. The other side held a simple desk where quite a few art supplies were (a cup of mechanical pencils, a cup of inking pens and brushes, a third holding markers), sketches of references and everything in between hanging above the top of said desk. It also held a small laptop which all her family chipped in for for her move. To keep more in contact, of course. And near that desk was a bookshelf, quite a few of those books she picked up at the thrift store (she was more than happy at finding some used art books to go along with the others). Of course it wasn't nearly full, but she would get there.

She smiled as she opened the door under the stairs that lead to her bedroom, closing it behind her softly, not wanting to disturb the lodger upstairs as she had heard him get in late and didn't think he'd be awake yet.

Making her way to the door, she heard someone call her.

"Hello, dear! Off on some errands?" she turned to her right to look into the doorway of the kitchen, seeing the couple that owned the house at the kitchen table. With a smile, she poked her head in the doorway.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Stewart, Mr. Stewart." they were a nice old couple, almost like you would see in a TV show, "Yep, just off to buy a few groceries. I noticed we were out," It usually went that when they were out of something of the essentials (milk, eggs, toilet paper, things of that nature) and she or the tenant upstairs (Simon was his name) noticed, they'd just pick it up, save Mr. and Mrs Stewart a trip. They'd give the owners the receipt and they'd deduct it from their rent for that month, "Did you need anything while I'm out?"

"I noticed we were almost out of tea," Mrs. Stewart started, "Earl grey, if you don't mind, dear." She said very kindly with a smile. Carla nodded in response.

"Mr. Stewart, can I tempt you with anything?"

"No I'm fine. But thank you all the same." she nodded again.

"I'll be back in a little while, then. See you later." she said with a wave out the door, she hearing their goodbyes as she closed the dark door, heading down the steps quickly, making her way down the sidewalk, the road being oddly barren as she went on her way.

"Huh. . . I wonder what that's about." she shrugged the thought off, making her uneventful way down to the shops, taking the back alleys along the way to the the store as she usually did, it being the quicker way.

But the events of the day were taking an even more odd turn.

"Closed? Why is the market closed?" she exclaimed as she saw the large, seemingly made in a rush sign on the glass door, "It's Monday!" she exclaimed further, adjusting her glasses, seeming just to make sure that that's what the sign actually said.

Yep, it did indeed say they were closed.

Inspecting her surroundings further, she noticed grocery bags laying about, carts that were strewn all around the small parking lot in front. The bags weren't just misplaced though, they were full of groceries, just spilled out on the ground, including the carts.

"This is not good." She said simply to herself, the instinct to get right back home flooding all her senses, it feeling like dipping into an ice cold bath. So with that feeling in check, she made her way quickly through to the back, taking the same path home, running the whole way there, her bag constantly hitting her hip as she ran, having a feeling that something was following her every now and again, that it was there and just gone again. She was just paranoid, though. . .Right? It had to be just that, mixed in with the excitement of the happenings of the grocery store parking lot. It just had to be.

She didn't stop running, right up until she could see the stoop of the home where she lived.

Panting from her run, she leaned on the railing, trying to catch her breath.

"What is going on down there?" She cried out as she finally caught her breath. Looking up to the door, though, all thoughts of why she had ran emptied from her mind as she saw that the mailbox was full.

Hurrying up the steps, she reached right in, seeing that the majority of the letters were for the old couple, a couple of those for Simon. The last letter she saw, though, was for her. One of the three she had been waiting for.

Placing the other letters back in the box (she would grab them later), she eagerly tore the white envelope open, sliding the letter out quickly, unfolding it terribly fast, she began to read:

"Dear Ms. Snow, we enjoyed your submission of work and were delighted by the story," she grinned at the words before she continued, "However, we regret to inform you that it's not what we're looking for at this time. . ." her grin sunk to a sad grimace as she skimmed the rest of the letter. Suppressing the urge to crumple the sheet of depressing words, she neatly put the paper back in the envelope, sliding it into her coat pocket, looking up at the at the cloudy sky, she let out a long sigh, her posture slumping as the sigh continued.

"Well," she let out one more sigh as she looked a bit forlornly at the depressing clouds, "One down, two to go."

She was about to go in when something went off in her mind about making her way home.

"Something didn't seem right when I came home." She said softly to herself. Turning around slowly, she immediately saw what was off.

A blue box.

A blue police box, to be exact, on the stretch of grass between the narrow road lanes.

"That's new." she said in an astonished whisper, it not even being there before she left for the store. . . Had it? She was positive that it wasn't there when she left.

"They don't use police boxes anymore," she said slowly, she making her way down the steps at the same pace of her words, "Do they? Did they bring them back?" She was now on the curb across the street from the box, studying it as she stood there, as it sat there. It was a pretty fantastic sight. If she weren't so focused on if they used police boxes anymore, she'd be taking her sketchbook out right at that moment and be sketching away.

She felt something then. As if an energy were emitting from that great big blue box. . .

Looking about, not seeing any cars making their way down the quiet street; she crossed the road cautiously, carefully, right until she was facing the box head on, it facing it's way down the street. She stared for a moment, studying the box with an intense stare, seeing the wooden panels, the public notice on the door, the silver handles, the windows at the top . . . It was quite the sight.

She raises a hand, slowly, carefully. She starts to place her hand on the wooden door, her finger tips making contact first, a bit of what seems to be a shocking pulse making her hand jump back, she looking at her hand, and back to the spot she touched so very briefly.

Feeling determined, she starts placing her hand back on the door, fixed on feeling the box.

Getting her finger tips back on, she was happy to discover that it wasn't a shock that she felt: It was just warm. The wood was warm, which was a bit shocking in it's self as it was quite chilly, is why her hand jumped back.

Her hand spread out across the textured blue wood, feeling that warmth, feeling almost a peaceful hum of energy within. It felt soothing, really, until -

"Hey!" a male voice yelled out at her from behind, making her jump about a foot back, "What do you think you're doing with my tar-" she turned around to see who the angry voice belonged to, her eyes widening in surprise at who she saw.

"Oh! Hello!" The Doctor cheerfully greeted as if he wasn't yelling a second ago, he moving quickly toward her as he knew who it was, she thought, he then placing an unusually shaped object he had seemed to be studying before yelling into his coat as he neared her, "Amazing seeing you here! Sorry about the yelling, didn't recognize you from the back. Didn't recognize you at all while standing, really, as, well, I've only ever seen you sitting or laying and. . ." his words drifted off as he finally reached her, Carla looking up at an astonished looking Doctor.

"What? !" he exclaims, reaching into his coat pocket for his glasses, sliding them quickly onto his nose.

"What?" she answers a bit unsure as he seems to study her.

"You're so short!" he cries out, Carla blushing immediately, "I didn't think you were that short!" she did only come up to the bottom of his shoulder, but surely, he didn't need to make a scene of it, did he?

"And a tad round." Yes, it seems he did as he added insult to injury, "Well, more so your bottom, your, your bottom half, I mean, not, you know," he flusters a bit, Carla crossing her arms as he continued on his tirade of pointing out her looks, "Tad pear shaped. . . Not, not as in the bad 'pear-shaped', but your actual shape, the shape of your body." he removes his glasses at his last words, placing them back safely in his pocket, still a studying eye focused on her.

"Sure you're human?" he says in one of the most sincere tones she had ever heard.

"Excuse me?" she finally speaks up, giving him an incredulous look, he looking surprised, she not sure if it was because he actually asked if she was human, or because of her speaking up.

"Oh. Sorry, am I being rude again?"

"Yes. But," she thinks for a second, "Possibly more blunt than anything." she finishes, she biting her lip in thought as she looked upon him, seeing that he was wearing his blue suit today, seeing also that he gave her a grin at her honesty, she not being able to help but letting a little smile emerge, "And I am quite human. Just as human as you, Doctor." he let out a bark of a laugh as he did a quick spin of glee on his feet, she not especially understanding why.

"Oh, Carla Snow! How are you?"

"I'm. . . I'm good." she says a bit unsure, her hands traveling to rest inside her coat pockets.

"Good? You must be amazing! You were down and out just the other day, you must have made a full recovery pretty quick?" Okay, now she was just terribly confused.

"Doctor?" he kept grinning at her, looking excited as he bounced on the balls of his feet, "What on earth are you going on about? It's been nearly three weeks since I saw you." at this bit of news, his gleeful face crumpled into a look of shock.

"Oh. . ." his hand ran through his hair in thought, that same hand wiping over his face, holding his chin in deep concentration, "The TARDIS clock must be off again." he mumbles, his eyes focused on the box behind Carla now, now studying that instead of her.

"Tar what?" she asks, getting more confused by the second.

"Time And Relative Dimension In Space." he answers a bit automatically, walking up to the blue box, taking out a key. Before he can put it in the lock, though, Carla calls out.

"Wait, this is yours? This is your police box?" He just smiles at her again, holding the key just above the lock.

"Of course it's my police box! It's really called a TARDIS, though, like I said. Time And Relative Dimension In Space. It's just disguised this way to not get noticed."

"A police box from, what, fifties/sixties not get noticed?"

"Well, the chameleon circuit's been bad for quite sometime, that's the cloaking device, just so you know. It's stuck as a police box."

For a long moment, the Doctor studied Carla (with a smile the whole time, of course) and Carla studied the Doctor, finally coming to the only conclusion that could make sense to her.

"Okay," she walks back up to the police box, the 'TARDIS', as he said, placing her hand on it, feeling that warmth once again, facing and looking up at him as she spoke, "I think I have this figured out. You're. . . You're a street performer, a, a performing artist, yes?" he just giggles at this theory, his hand with the key now at his side, this not deterring her explanation, "Who goes by 'The Doctor'," she says his performing name in an imitation of him, making him giggle further, "You travel about, yeah? Visiting hospitals, making patients feel better, all that, one of your shows being that you say an ordinary police box is some sort of, of_ time machine _as you've said you were a time traveler before, and you probably do tricks and, and stunts, and all sorts of street . . . performing. . . things." she finishes with a shrug of her shoulders, waiting to be confirmed that she was indeed right.

He just giggles again, giving her one of the widest grins she'd ever see him give.

"Oh, Carla. Carla, Carla, Carla!" he shouts in almost disbelief, but impressed at the same time, if that were possible, "With the imagination I've seen in the pages of your sketchbook, hell, even in that story you just concocted! How can you not see the real life wonders that are staring you right in the face?" she shrunk back just the littlest bit, not sure what to say.

He smiles a kind smile at her, holding up the key he was about to put in the lock. With a waggle of his eyebrows, he asks in a playful tone,

"Wanna see the inside of my TARDIS?" she couldn't help but grin herself.

"That sounds like a terrible come on." he laughs again, she laughing right along at her stupid joke, "I don't see how it couldn't be, we'll both barely fit in there."

"I promise, it's not, and we'll fit just fine." he says nicely again with a bit of a wink, still holding up the key as if showing her a key to wondrous things that she couldn't even imagine, "I promise also," he starts in a low voice, sounding much more mature than his usual playful one, Carla looking back into his dark brown eyes, "That you won't be disappointed at what I show you, Ms. Snow." he finishes with a winning smile.

She nods with a smile of her own, wanting to see if this little box really held fantastical things.

Right as he was about to put the key in; a beeping sounds off loud and clear deep within his long coat, him putting the key back in his pocket, reaching far into the jacket, taking out a round object, little gadgets and gizmos poking out every which way. The same object he had placed in his coat earlier, it looked like. He looks at what appears to be the screen, his eyes widening at what he sees.

"What is that?" she asks, looking at the device, not making any sense of it.

"Tracking device," he simply says, "Been following something around close by here. It's been coming and going on the screen, and it seems to have come this way now. Keep your eye out for some sort of animal." he orders, quickly placing the foreign object back in the confines of his coat, he looks around carefully, she doing the same, helping him to look for whatever the thing alerted him to.

Without warning, a dog makes it's appearance, seeming not to notice them right away. A St. Bernard, if she wasn't mistaken, to her left, toward her home.

"Move away very slowly, Carla. Maybe I can unlock the TARDIS in time." he says cautiously before she can point out the dog, almost as if he didn't want the dog to spot them.

"What are you talking about? It's just a dog, it looks friendly enough." at those words, the dog looks toward them quickly, immediately starting to growl, something else happening as the dog starts to move toward them:

It was flashing. Flicking in and out like a bad television screen. One moment it was a St. Bernard, the next . . . Well, she didn't know what it was. It was blue, it had scales, terribly big claws, and smoke was venting out of it's nostrils and mouth.

"Doctor. . ." she said in a small voice, it being full of fright as she started backing away.

She feels the Doctor's hand slide into hers, taking hold of it firmly, holding it tight as he's pulling her toward him, the dog getting closer quickly.

"Carla?"

"Yes, Doctor?" she says very softly.

"Run."

And off they ran down the street, a seemingly vicious creature hot on their trail, the Doctor holding on to her hand so very tightly, not making any indication he'd be letting go anytime soon as they ran for their lives.

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><p>And there was chapter eight, hooray! :D Sorry it's a cliffhanger. . . It's just how it worked!<p>

So about those announcements: Okay, so Chapter nine is basically written (a tad more has to be written still, but it's pretty much complete), **BUT** I am just not entirely certain when I'll be editing it, as I'm going to be quite busy until the end of the month as I am in the process of making a TARDIS dress (making the dress from scratch and not just buying a blue dress and altering it! :D), and that will take up quite a bit of my time, as I'll be hand sewing and, you know, not as quick as with a machine. D: So, there you be. I'm terribly sorry if I don't update by the time another week rolls by, you'll know why now. ;) But anyhoo, on with comments!

Even Angels Cry - Thanks so much, my lovely. :D You're brilliant. ;D

Cetacea-of-Time - Hope the chapter answered it for you. ;) In my mind, being gone for three months, a bit more time would have passed. And I know it's a time machine, the TARDIS, but, I thought it'd make for a good . . . little something. And maybe the clock's not off, maybe the TARDIS wanted him there ;)

sashaxh - Yes. :D And that's all I'm saying. ;) Thank you for asking, my darling. :D

And there we go! I hope you enjoyed, and hopefully it won't take terribly long for the next chapter. :D Until then, cheerio!


	9. Ms Sassy Trousers

Hi my lovelies! Sorry it took a while. D: Was having a bit of trouble with the last bit of this chapter, but, here it is! Hooray! :D I hope you enjoy it.

More notes at the end, per usual. :)

Don't own it, or I would probably be in the UK right now . . . And have some sort of accent and not just my Minnesotan one. :)

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><p>It felt so close.<p>

Having run into the alley ways behind the houses, going left, right, another right, they just kept going, the creature still going. It felt as if it were right at their heals at times, though, it could just be the fear that an unknown dragon like creature with the nose of a dog was chasing them down. The things you think of when something like that chases you down:

_"We're going to be eaten! . . . God, he has impossibly long legs! How am I even keeping up? . . . How could his hand still be cold in mine, you'd think it would have warmed by now. . . Wait. I felt that same touch on my forehead last time I saw him. . . Is that what I woke up to? His hand on my forehead?" _she panted as her thoughts raced just as strongly as her heart beat, as her short form had a bit of difficulty keeping up with his lanky one, his hand never losing his grip as he pulled her along, seeming to want to keep her out of harms way.

Another turn into a smaller alley, Carla hears something, almost like a big gush of wind, a kind of '**whoosh**'. But it wasn't terribly windy, and the only gush of wind she felt was what went through her hair as they ran.

The Doctor suddenly stopped, she bumping into him at his abrupt halt. He looks behind them, scanning the narrow alley way, a hand going through his hair as his face looked as if he were figuring something out.

With eyes going wide in recognition, he said in a low voice, "It must be trying to get to it's owner." She looked on at him with wide eyes of her own, taking her hand from his, placing her hands on her knees as she was catching her breath.

"Wait. . . An owner? It's a_ pet_? !" she now leaned against the fence that lined the alley, sinking down to the ground as her breathing started to return to normal. The Doctor joined her, stretching out his legs in front of him, crossing them at the ankle as he leaned back, folding his hands in his lap, not especially showing signs that they had been running.

"Yep. Pretty much. Have seen a few of them before, they're usually very nice pets."

"What happened to it, then? Why is it acting that way? Where did it disappear to? And why is it flashing from a dog to a, a dragon thing?" She couldn't help but let the questions flow freely from her mouth. It had started out as such a normal day, one couldn't expect to just accept the strangeness of being chased down by something that looked like a knight should be slaying it.

"First off, it's a Dracul," he corrected her nicely, "B, no, wait, second, yes, second, that strange dog tag it had on it's collar was a cloaking device, a tad like with my TARDIS, which means that pet and it's owner have probably been here for a while." She hadn't even noticed it wearing a collar, let alone having a strange tag. Was too busy focusing on the smoke coming from it's mouth.

His hand jumps to his chin in thought, a wide smile coming to his face after a moment of thinking, leaping to his feet in a whoop of realization, "It's been disappearing! The pet's been disappearing!"

"Yes, I see that." she says with a bit of a bite to her tone, her hand gesturing to the deserted alley before them. He shakes his head, smiling at her, offering his hands to help her up, she accepting the kind gesture.

"It's not just that. That tag must also be some sort of homing beacon."

"It's. . . It's trying to get home?"

"No! The owner is trying to get their pet home! Person from another planet, wouldn't you want a bit of extra insurance that you wouldn't lose your pet?" he grins at her, she starting to think it through.

"So," She starts, a hand going through her hair, biting her lip in thought, putting the shock of him mentioning someone from another planet aside so she _could_ think, "The owner has some sort of, we'll say button, that if they lose their pet, they can press that button and the pet will be home again," he nodding, his eyes flashing as she spoke, "But why isn't the pet home yet?" her eyes growing wide in understanding, "It's broken. That's why the pet, the _Dracul_ isn't home, that's why it's cloaking thing is flashing back and forth. . . Why is it broken though?" she mumbles that last bit to herself, the Doctor not looking as if he paid attention to that last part, his words sounding excited.

"YES! That's why my tracking ball seemed off! Why it kept popping in and out of the screen so much! It's popping everywhere around the area in a different location every time the owner presses that button!" he takes out the tracking thing again, looking at the screen, looking as if he were seeing if it were in the general area.

"That explains why the grocery store parking lot and streets were so empty, why it seemed in shambles. I wouldn't be too keen on sticking around seeing something like that. . . Well, I wasn't, look where I am." she says as the Doctor continues to look at his device, whirling about, looking as if he were trying to get better reception like with a cell phone.

"Aha! It's about three blocks west, just popped on my screen." he starts walking, keeping an eye on his screen, Carla calling out,

"Why was it acting like that, though? Why did it seem so angry?" he stops, turning around, his mouth slightly agape as a small look of shock forms on his face.

"It must have become rabid somehow." he says softly, his hands sliding into his pockets, a thoughtful look coming to his face.

"Then we need to find it before it hurts someone." his eyebrows shoot up to his hairline as she walks to his side, she looking up at him, determination in her step.

"Could be dangerous. Sure you want to?"

"You were just going to leave me here?"

"Well. . ." his eyes wander off, not being able to look at her as a sheepish smile forms on his lips.

"Yes, I'm quite sure. I did have dogs growing up, not exactly a dog, but it seems to be around there," she blushed a bit at her rambling, the Doctor giving her a less guilty smile once again, "Maybe I could be of some help."

"Alright. Let's go, Snow." he said brightly with a grin, taking her hand once again in his, the other holding the device as they moved quickly down the alley, making their way toward the Dracul.

The beeping was becoming louder and louder as they moved closer and closer, but quite suddenly died, the Doctor's face falling dramatically.

"Oh it's gone again!" he looked around, just in case it decided to pop up again, "Looks like the waiting game it is." he mumbles, letting go of Carla's hand, leaning on the fence behind them, hands traveling into his pockets.

"Waiting isn't so bad," she says softly, leaning by him as well, her eyes focusing on a very interesting pattern in the fence across the alley, "Gives you time to think," she lifts the flap of her messenger bag, grabbing a travel sized sketchbook and mechanical pencil, turning to a page with a couple doodles already there, "Time to talk, time to sketch." she finishes, starting to sketch away, the different pattern in the fence becoming a part of her book, a bird being incorporated as it landed just above.

"You do that all the time, don't you?" Carla hears the Doctor ask, not taking her eyes away from the sketch, "Just start drawing when you see something you fancy, yeah?"

"Problem?" she continues with the sketch, a bit of a sarcastic tone to her voice as she was starting to crosshatch a wing. It was. . . good to see the Doctor again, but him having disappeared for nearly three weeks without so much as as a word given wasn't sitting with her all that well.

"No. . ." her eyes wandered over to him for a second, seeing a bit of a confused expression on his face, a glimmer of curiosity in his eye as he tried to see her book, "Just brilliant, is all." she finally looks over at him, finding a small grin on his face, she giving him a little smile of her own.

"It's good practice," she starts, eyes shifting back to the sketch, "Just sketching from different things you see, from observation. I've learned more from this than most anything, really," He stays silent, Carla imagining him giving her a nod of recognition,

"And do you do this all the time? Running after _pets_ that look like mythical beasts?" she says with amusement in her voice, the whole thing seeming so positively absurd that she was wondering if she had gone into some sort of coma.

"More or less." she hears a grin in his voice as she's putting a few more sketch lines on the fence, being happy with what she had at the moment, her pencil going behind her ear as she studied her work to see if it needed anything else.

"Looks brilliant." she jumped slightly, the Doctor appearing right up beside her without her knowing. She looks, still seeing that smile on his face, wondering if he always held that same look.

"Thanks." she says, a blush coming to her cheeks, not used to people seeing her work in person. She closes her sketchbook, placing it back in her bag, remembering the pencil as she was about to close it up.

"What does 'more or less' entail, exactly?" she asks after a moment, hands having now gone in her coat pockets, the wind picking up slightly as they waited for their dragon like creature.

"Oh, just a little of this, little of that. Travel about, around the galaxy, around time and space. Sometimes helping others," his eyes wander about at his thoughts, his brow furrowing a bit, "Sometimes not."

"Yes, in your '_TARDIS_'." she raises her eyebrows with her slight mocking tone, giving him the tiniest smirk when she sees that it got to him a teeny bit.

"Yes, my **TARDIS**," he says in a tad of an incredulous tone, "She's a brilliant old girl, and don't you imply otherwise."

"I agree, a box from the sixties is pretty old." Oh, he looked pissed.

"What's wrong with you? What's gotten your knickers all tied up in a knot so suddenly?" He's up and away from the fence now, standing as tall as he could, hands on hips as he's giving her an angry glare. Biting her lip, she studies him for a moment, wondering if she should continue this argument because she was hurt, or just say the obvious problem that was bothering her?

"Where were you?" she blurted out the reason before fully deciding, going about it in a quiet voice, "Nearly three weeks gone and here you are out of the blue. I know . . . I know we haven't known each other terribly long, but when you visit frequently and just, just _stop_ without so much as a word . . . " her words drift off, not exactly knowing what else to say as she slumps slightly, looking away from the Doctor.

"Oh Carla," she looks back toward the Doctor as she feels his hand taking hold of hers carefully, finding his face quite close with a concerned expression, "I wasn't exactly myself in the time I was gone," he says, taking his hand back and running it through his hair, leaning on the fence once again, looking as if he didn't know how or what to explain.

Before he could though, another gust of wind went through the little alleyway, it being quite the disturbance for how much of a gust it was, the end result of said gust being that the Dracul had appeared once more, right around the corner of the fence they were leaning on.

Both getting the same idea, they shrunk back, peeking just around the corner, the Doctor quite a bit above the short woman, Carla thinking it probably resembled an old cartoon where five or more characters would be stacked up against a door frame peeking about.

"What now?" she asks, watching as the animal went slowly about, Carla seeing something not looking quite right in it's movements.

"We have to stop it, but the question is, how?" He said in a hushed tone, they slinking back to their hiding spot, leaning against the fence, both letting out a simultaneous breath they hadn't realized they were holding.

What seemed an incredible amount of time of the Doctor twiddling his fingers all around, gesturing wildly as Carla could see his thinking power straining his face; he snapped his fingers, a grin appearing wide and bright, she knowing instantly that he knew what to do.

Reaching into his inner coat pocket, he pulls out a different object other than his tracking device. A slim, blue headed gadget. It just sort of looked like a fat pen, really.

"What, are you going to write it a note?" she couldn't help but run with the pen idea.

"What? No! It's a sonic screwdriver," he wasn't looking at her, his eyes focused immensely on the screwdriver, fiddling with the contraption, pressing a button, an odd whirring sound emitting from it as he did, "We need to take the dracul down."

"And you're going to take it down with a blinking screwdriver?"

"It's **sonic**, Ms. Sassy trousers," She couldn't help but giggle at the supposed insult, "And yes I am." He gives her a grin of 'you dare doubt me?', going back to fiddle with the thing, his eyebrows waggling as it seemed to be ready.

"What I'm going to do," he starts, edging back to the corner of the fence, she doing so as well, peeking out at the creature, it looking confused as it wandered about the small alleyway, grunting out smoke every now and again as the flashing back and forth of a dog and unrecognizable beast was looking more frequent than their last encounter. Something about it's movement still didn't seem quite right, "I'm going to point my sonic at it's tag, hopefully having have found the right frequency with the transporter in it, creating a wave that only it will be able to hear, knocking it out cold. Then, we can examine it more closely." they duck back behind their corner, he giving her another grin, this one filled with 'am I smart or what?'

"Will it hurt it?" yes, it may have been a scary beast like dragon and could possibly be rabid. Though, did it really mean they should hurt the thing?

His eyes become slightly wide, a look of trepidation forming lightly within those orbs, "Well," that 'well' sauntering out in a long drawl, his eyes moving somewhat back and forth as he thought, "I . . . If I found the right frequency and it's a clear shot. . . I don't know." he says quietly, his look of unsureness quickly forming into one of determination, "But I have to do this, Carla. It could or may even have already harmed someone. I have to stop it whether it harms the dracul or not."

She didn't shake her head yes or no, she just looked away, not wanting to see the beast being hurt, even if it was uncertain. She didn't want to take that chance.

"I'm sorry, Carla. It has to be done." he says again, it sounding as if he was convincing himself of the deed at hand and not just assuring the short woman that stood near him.

Sneaking a look around the corner again; the Doctor aims his screwdriver at the animal, he not taking the shot yet as it was turned around.

"Turn around, turn around..." he murmured to himself in a chant, his stance ready to shoot, his attention fully on the dracul.

Though, the Minnesotan's eyes were fixed on it too, studying it as all the Doctor's attention was directed at trying to get a clear shot of it's tag. That's when Carla noticed why it's movement looked off.

"Doctor," she said softly, he not seeming to hear her right away, "Doctor?" She said a touch louder, needing to get his attention, he furrowing his eyebrows in response.

"**Doctor**." she yawps as she places a hand on his arm to gain his attention.

"Not now. If I don't lock on the tag, it _will _hurt the dracul-

"But, Doctor!" She interrupts, her grasp on his arm becoming the slightest bit tighter. He shakes her hand off, not aggressively, not saying another word as the dracul started to slowly turn around.

That's when it happened.

Just as the dracul turned around to face them; Carla took a hold of the Doctor's arm that was aiming, thanking whatever was above that his attentiveness was full force on the pet, that he wasn't especially focused on his footing. Pushing upward on his arm strongly, feeling a smidgen of a strain on her catheter site, he topples backward. Falling flat on his bottom, a terribly surprised look washing over his face as he fell.

She quickly makes her way around the corner, hearing the Doctor call out, not catching what he was saying, the pet spotting her right off the bat, making her halt right in her tracks, a growl and smoke billowing from it's flashing mouth.

With determination in her step; she started her way slowly toward the pet, the dracul continuing it's growling, but not making a move towards her. She was terribly thankful so far.

She was chanting in a very low, calming voice (if a tad trembling) as she was nearing her target, "It's alright. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. . ." The dracul's eyes not leaving her for a second, taking a couple steps toward her as it growled, as Carla kept on her slow, careful path.

And without really knowing how she did it; she was there. Right before the flashing creature, studying it's movement and form, seeing the ridges of it's snout when it'd flash to the dracul, the soft muzzle of it's dog form when it'd flash back. It was quite the sight.

Carefully, she slowly dropped to her knees, keeping her eyes forward, not leaving it's for a second. She reached out her hand, leaving it there right near it's mouth, her comforting chant still flowing from her lips, "It's okay, it's fine. You're safe. . ."

The pet gave Carla's hand a sniff and then another, it's piercing eyes eying her warily to the extreme for such a long moment as she waited fearfully with bated breath. . .

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><p>And there be chapter nine, arrrr! :D<p>

And I know, I'm sorry, **I'M SO SORRY** for leaving it on another cliffhanger. D: It was getting long and the next part seemed better in another chapter. :) So there's that explanation.

Cetacea-of-Time - There's your update. ;D

Even Angels Cry - Well, I am extremely flattered that you squealed over a new chapter. :D Though I'm sorry you got some looks. O.O I heart you. ;D Thanks so much for the continued reviews and the kind words. They're brilliant (and so are you!). :D

Disney-Princess-In-Disguise - Yeah, I probably would have responded the same way too. XD Thanks so much for the review, and I'm glad you like her! :D

Well, there you be, my darlings. Next chapter will conclude the story of the dracul. :D Until then, have a lovely time! Cheerio, my honeys!


	10. It's a Very Good Cloaking Device

Oh my goodness, I am **SO SORRY**, my darlings! I've been having such terrible writer's block. D: But, it's getting better, a smidgen, anyway. :)

But, other news: My terribly old computer finally went to computer heaven. So, updates on The Doctor Visits will probably still be a bit slow. Sorry, my lovelies. I'll try and continue as much as I can when I do have access to a computer. :) But yes, more notes at the end, as usual.

But anyhoo, we (as in we, I mean me ;D) now bring you the conclusion of the dracul saga!

Don't own Doctor Who. If I did, well. . . I just don't know. O.o

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><p><em>"What is going on? !"<em>The Doctor thought frantically as he felt himself start to tumble backward, only a second after falling flat on his bum had he realized that Carla had wrenched his arm upright, causing him to fall.

His eyes grew even wider at seeing Carla dash off around the corner, right from his sight.

"Carla, stop! What are you doing? !" he flustered about as his friend disappeared, flailing to stand as he went around the corner himself, his stomach dropping and his steps screeching to a halt as he saw she was making her way toward the animal.

What could he do? He didn't want to yell out, he didn't want to spook it and cause it to harm her!

"Haven't even traveled with me yet, and you're already getting into trouble!" He muttered to himself, his annoyed tone shaking somewhat. All he could do was watch and wait as she made her way. Staying glued to the spot, he kept his eye on her and the beast, his hearts beating even more rapid as he saw her drop to her knees in a graceful swoop. The dracul was right in front of her now. If it wanted, it could bite her nose clean off.

But it didn't. It just sniffed the hand Carla presented it, it studying her with a keen eye for what seemed ages.

Then suddenly, it flopped down like a sack of potatoes, it's head resting neatly in Carla's lap.

He stood still in his spot for a moment, dumbfounded at the scene before him. Not twenty minutes ago, they were running from this, this beast and now it was calmly laying it's head in Carla's lap. And she was petting it! Honest to God, petting the dracul!

With a shake of his head; he started making his way over cautiously in case he would still spook the pet.

Now at Carla's side, he was able to see the scene clearly.

The dracul looked to be in pain, whimpering as it leaned into Carla's stroking, not looking the least bit menacing now.

"That was dangerous," he spoke softly, Carla not looking up from the pet at the Doctor's voice.

"You said it might be." Her attention still on the dracul, her other hand now giving it a soft caring scratch under it's chin as the other continued it's petting.

"You could have been harmed." he bit his lip as the emotion was edging into his voice, his hands clenching and relaxing in order to control his mood.

"I can be harmed any day of my life, it would have just been a terribly different way if it was by an alien dog." she calmly said, the Doctor hearing a smile in her voice.

"That's not what I meant!" his hand dragged through his hair in exasperation, finally going to his knees to be level with Carla and the animal. What he found, was a sad smile on the Minnesotan face, her eyes still trained on her petting.

"I knew I wouldn't be," her voice still staying calm, "Doctor. . . He was limping." She finally looking up to him, the Doctor feeling his eyes go wide in shock. How did he not spot that?

"He must have gotten hit somehow," she continued, eyes trailing back down, "That's probably why his transporter and cloaking is all wonky, why he can't get home, why he's limping. He's scared and confused. He just wants to get home. I'm sure I'd be growling and snarling too if I was in his situation." she adds with a small laugh, the pet giving her a small lick on her palm.

The Doctor stays silent as he now goes to study the pet. He did look a tad rough, even more so with the flashing. He was panting, his right front paw was bleeding and the top of his hind leg looked in pretty bad shape as well.

"I hate the side affects of the chameleon arch. Turning back to myself from a human, I'm always off kilter for a while." he says to himself, rubbing his palms into his eyes tiredly. It always took a couple days for all his senses to come back. Spotting all the little details of something always took the longest.

"What?" he hears Carla ask, seeing her giving him a questioning look.

"Later." he says with a smile, looking back down at the pet, giving him a little pat himself, the dracul giving him a small growl.

"Hey, I don't want trouble." he says to him, a thought coming to him as he looked toward Carla, "How do you know it's a boy?"

"Well, apart from the obvious," Carla says with a teasing smile, "His tag says 'Sebastian'. I don't know many girls with that name." This makes him chuckle, his hand continuing it's petting of the animal before them, hearing the woman next to him speak again after a short pause.

"What now?"

"We'll have to bandage him up, of course," he starts, his hands moving towards his terribly deep pockets, "Then, fix his transporter/cloaking device and he'll be home in no time." he smiled, noting Carla giving a tad of a pout, "You can't keep someone else's pet, you know." He added, seeing that she quite liked him.

"I know I can't keep him!" she says a tad defensively, her petting faltering just slightly. The Doctor just gives her a fond smile, a thought coming to his mind as he studied her petting of the dracul.

"You brought home quite a few animals when you were a child, didn't you?"

"Maybe." she says with a non committal tone, giving him a tad of a blushing smile, the Doctor giggling lightly at this.

"Just to make sure he doesn't disappear on us," he starts, sonic being pulled out once again, fiddling with the buttons; he points it at the device on it's collar, that familiar sound going off, a small spark jumping from the sphere, both Carla and the pet jumping slightly at the unexpected pop of noise, this making the flashing back and forth from dog to beast come to a halt, "Have to disable it for a little while." he mumbles, setting down his sonic for a moment. Reaching with tentative hands (they stopping a second as he hears a small growl), he gently takes the device off the collar after a few moments of soft reassuring murmurs, looking it over thoroughly once he has it in his palm.

"Well! Nice little transporter you have here, Sebastian!" He grins, rolling it over in his hands, feeling the raised design on the otherwise smooth metal of the ball, noting two little cracked glass pieces on either side, both being a deep shade of red.

"Model number five, if I'm guessing right. Last I saw was a three and that barely held the last creature's identity, though, it was the size of an elephant. . . And was disguised as one, actually." He mumbles on, one of his hands searching in his never ending pocket, producing an actual small screwdriver. Popping open the ball at the seam, he starts tinkering around with the circuitry, a few things still flashing about, a whirring and popping sounding deep within.

"What about his injuries?" He looks up at Carla's voice, seeing her look on at him expectantly.

"Oh! Right! Sorry." He softly says, clearing his throat at the small embarrassment of getting caught up in the dracul's device. Placing the actual screwdriver in his mouth; his hand goes searching once again in his pocket, now excavating a reasonably sized first aid kit. Holding it out to a tad of a wide eyed Minnesotan; he grins at her, the screwdriver clicking on his teeth as they gripped it firmer, this making her smile.

Taking it from his hand gingerly, he sees her placing it by her knee, opening it with one hand as the other still scratches behind the pet's ear, the Doctor going back to tinkering with the device at seeing her take the antiseptic spray out.

"It's okay," She murmurs after a moment, he looking over to see her spraying his front paw, a whimper sounding out as he burrowed his snout on her thigh, "It probably would've been much worse if I hadn't stopped that mean old Doctor." She smiles the smallest of smug smiles as she wraps up his paw. The Doctor just gawps at the dracul when he looks at him with a tad of a glare, a bit of a gruff puff of air sounding out toward him accompanied by the littlest of smoke.

"Hey! I'm not a bad guy!" She looks up at him as his voice raises an octave higher as he protests, "I was just doing what I thought was the right thing to do!" another snort of contempt toward the Doctor as his voice has turned into an absolute squeak.

"Oh, it's alright. He really was trying to do the best," She starts, scratching behind his ear again before she went to work on his back, "Even so, I won't let the mean old Doctor get you. No I won't, because you're a good boy. Yes you are." Oh, that was just mean, the Doctor thought. He was wagging his tail more than happily now!

"Thank you very much, Carla. I'm so glad that you've made another friend on the benefit of my behalf." He drawls sarcastically, giving her the tiniest of glares.

"Me too." She gives him a cheeky grin, the Doctor shaking his head, not helping but let a little grin of his own appear as his eyes focused back on the device in hand.

It didn't take very long at all for the transporter/cloak to be fixed nor did it take long for Carla to bandage up the dracul (his injuries not appearing too serious, it looking as if he was hit by no more than maybe a scooter at a low speed).

The Doctor attaches the device back onto his collar, his sonic bringing it back to life once again, a non blinking St. Bernard replacing the blue creature that still sidled the Minnesotan's side. Though, a look of surprise takes over Carla's features, her petting hand stilling briefly.

"O-Okay," She starts, her hand moving in the fur that was now there, "How the hell am I petting fur now when he was just smooth?" The Doctor can't help but giggle at her wonderment.

"It's a very good cloaking device." Was his answer, standing up from the ground, offering Carla a hand. She accepts, a bit reluctant to leave Sebastian when he lets out the smallest whine,

"It's alright, boy. We're going to send you home to your owner. Does that sound good?" The pet starts wagging his tail, staying seated before them, the Doctor giving him a smile as he adjusts his sonic's settings, "Thought so. Well, it was nice to meet you, Sebastian. Maybe we'll see you again sometime." He barks, the Doctor noticing Carla smiling at the pet.

"Bye, boy. Be good." She says softly, that sad smile on her lips once again.

Before the Doctor can send off their new friend; Sebastian stands, moving toward Carla, his limp not looking too terrible. He nuzzles under Carla's hand one more time, the Doctor knowing he was giving her his thanks.

Her smile grows as she gives him one final scratch behind his ears, he giving her hand a lick after she does so.

"Bye, Sebastian." She says with a smile, he giving her a happy sounding bark. As the pet backs away in his slight limp, the Doctor points his sonic screwdriver at his collar. One click and whir sound later . . . And he's gone.

"Well," Carla speaks after a few moments of silence, he noticing she was still looking on in the spot where Sebastian disappeared. She looks up at the Doctor, she giving him a curious look, "That was different."

He can't help it. He starts giggling, she joining in, it soon starting to turn into a long giggle fit, that turning into laughing.

"Not so different for me, actually." He says after calming his laughter down, they beginning to walk back from where they came.

"Not so diff-" she begins, stopping herself as she giggles again, "Honestly? If that's true, then, then . . . There's probably merit to your space, time travel story."

"Indeed there is," He says, hands burying deep into his pockets as he keeps that grin right in place, "And if you'll let me show you my TARDIS, well, you'll see for yourself."

A thoughtful look spreads across her face as they walk along, she looking back up at him with a small, shy smile.

"I already agreed to see your box, Doctor." He grins back, taking his hand out of his coat pocket, wiggling his fingers toward her in an offer to take his hand.

"That you did," he says softly, she taking his hand gently into hers, his grip tightening just the slightest bit, "Let's go, Snow."

And with that, he's leading her back to the TARDIS, wanting to show her the wonders of his ship.

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><p>And there was Chapter ten, hooray! I hope it was worth the wait. D:<p>

Disney-Princess-In-Disguise - Hee, thank you, my dear! Yes, I believe the Doctor would very much defend his lovely TARDIS from any sort of negative comment. ;) And thinking of 'sassy trousers' made me giggle, so I'm glad it made you giggle as well. ;D

MissCaityGrace - Thank you! I'm so glad you're enjoying it so far! :D

Theta-McBride - Nope. ;D

fanfreak4ever - Thank you so much! I'm glad you like both! :D And I don't believe there's a problem with thinking like the British. It's jolly good fun! ;D XD Hee.

**And to everyone, thank you so much for the continued favourites, alerts, and reviews! They make me all warm and fuzzy. **:D

Hopefully the next update won't take terribly long, but again not having a computer whenever I please, I'm just not sure. :( I hope you all understand. Heart you all. :)


	11. Getting to Know You

Well, not too terribly long of a wait for this chapter, it looks like. :D Hello, my darlings! So, here is chapter 11 for everyone. I do so hope you enjoy. :D

As always, more notes and such at the end.

I sadly don't own Doctor Who. . . Be terribly neat if I did, though. ;D

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><p>"You were brilliant today, you know."<p>

Carla looks up at him with a 'hmm' as they made their way along the sidewalk. It was the first words either of them had said since they started back.

"You were brilliant today, Carla," She blushes lightly immediately at the compliment, noticing that the Doctor had the smallest of smiles on his face, his gaze focused forward in their walking, "I don't think it would have been the brightest of days if you hadn't caught that he was limping." He looks down at her, his smile widening into a goofy grin,

"You may have saved Sebastian's life." She blushes a bit more at these words, looking back down as she bites her bottom lip very briefly, not helping but let the littlest smile appear.

"Well, I didn't want him to get hurt," She murmurs, keeping her eyes ahead, "I don't like seeing pets get hurt."

"He reminded you of a dog you had, didn't he?" At this she looks back up at him, finding that he still had an eye on her, a knowing smile bright on his face.

"Maybe," She says with another smile, "How'd you know?"

"The way you were treating him. Like he may have been yours." He looks away again, a smile still on his lips.

"He reminded me of a dog my family had," She begins, hands sliding into her coat pockets, "She was a grand dog, always kept me company when working on the computer or drawing something out. . . It's been a few years since she passed. Was a bit hard too, as she just didn't pass on quietly in her sleep like most pets do. She was sick, and old. Nearly twelve, and that's old for a big dog," She continues, eyes concentrating on the road in front of them, "Nothing they could do and. . . She was put down." She answers quietly, biting her lip, a hand coming up to adjust her glasses nervously.

"I'm sorry." He says softly, Carla nodding her thanks, keeping her eyes on the road.

"Well, she had a good life with us and isn't in any pain anymore. That's the good thing about it." She says softly, a small smile on her lips as another comfortable silence falls upon them.

". . . Do you feel that way about your father as well?" She hears the Doctor ask softly. Looking up, she finds a thoughtful look settled on the Doctor's face, taking a moment to answer this question that she wasn't expecting.

"Yes, though, terribly differently as he was my dad and not a household pet," This makes him smile, she smiling with him as well, "I'm glad that my dad isn't hurting and isn't sick anymore. I may miss him still, even if it's been over ten years, but, he's in a better place," She thinks for a second once more, finishing, "And if all goes to plan, I'll meet him again someday when I do pass on. Where, I just don't especially know, but I'm sure we'll meet again at some point." She keeps on with that smile, noticing the Doctor having a thoughtful look once again.

"You never truly **_not_** miss someone, no matter the time that has passed. So don't you ever feel silly when you say you still miss him, Carla."

"How'd you know I felt silly?" she asks as she blushes the teeniest bit, she not helping but wondering too if he also knew her feelings because he was still missing someone himself.

"How you felt you had to account for it, mentioning how long it's been since your father passed."

"Can't get too much passed you, can I?"

"I do catch on to some things now and again." He smiles wide, Carla chuckling along. They were only a couple blocks away from her home now, from the Doctor's police box, TARDIS, thing. . . Why was she going along with this? Did she honestly believe that it was something other than just an old wooden box? Well, there were strange things out there. She did end up on the moon just over a month ago, for goodness sake, _and_ had just helped a dragon-dog type creature pet before it could get hurt any further! How far fetched was it that a box was something else other than just a box? Why not have a look and see?

"Why'd you move so far away from home?" She jumps slightly at the interruption of her thoughts, seeing the Doctor giving her a sideways glance as they turned the corner. One more block, and she'd be at her lodging.

"You're just bursting with questions today, aren't you?" she teases with a smile, the Doctor gaining a grin of his own at the question.

"Well, why not take this time to get to know the one Ms. Snow all the better?" He retorts, his grin turning smirk like, Carla shaking her head in amusement.

"Really, just for a bit of adventure," She answers without thinking after, knowing already the answer, she running a hand through her hair, "I feel like I've wasted so much time over the years, especially after dropping out of art school. Then finding out about the whole kidney deal. . . Well, I wanted to do something grand in case. . . Something happened before I could."

"You don't want to waste anymore of the time you have left." He says, it being a statement rather than a question.

"Yeah," She answers anyway, "It's why I had to take the chance to draw the moon. I mean, how could I not?"

"Indeed, how could you not?" He gives her a smile, that same one that she's come to know as a smile of wonderment, "Though, I hope you're not going to be reckless and mean to have a death wish." He becomes serious so quickly, it makes her take a double take.

"Well, no, just. . . No," He smiles, undoubtedly at how the 'o' sounded long in 'no', "I want to take chances, Doctor, but I know when something is just plain stupid and to not do it." Still with a smile, he nods his head, they turning another corner, finding their way to her street, she spotting that big blue box right away.

"Still wanna see inside my TARDIS?" he says, looking down at her with a grin. With a smile and a chuckle; she just nods minutely, he taking her hand so they can jog the rest of the way there.

Letting go of her hand a few steps before the box; he digs deep within his pocket, a key emerging soon after. He places it swiftly into the lock, looking to be well practiced in doing so.

A swish and click later, and it's opened. He looks down at her, the biggest grin shining on his face. He takes a step away from the entrance, pushing the blue door inward.

"After you, Ms. Snow." He gestures with a grand sweep of his arm, a little smirk of a grin on his face.

"If this is you trying something, you **will** get a slap right to the face, you know." She half teases with a small smile, half means it as he still has his arm gesturing toward the open door.

"I'm sure I would, but it's nothing _devious_, so I will most certainly** not **get a slap to the face." he keeps that grin in place, waiting for her to enter.

Cautiously, stepping forward; she closes her eyes as she takes in a rather deep breath. As she takes that step inward, she starts letting her breath out slowly as her eyes slip open, her breath catching and eyes popping wide open at the sight.

To say she was surprised at what she found would be a terrible understatement.

Not being able to think of anything else; she turns around without a word, stepping out, honestly wondering if she somehow stepped into something else rather than a big blue box!

She finds the Doctor, grin still in place as he looked on her with such amusement shining brightly within his eyes. She turns around, expecting to find maybe a, a house, or something bigger than just a police box.

Nope. Just a box was in her sight and nothing else.

She steps back in, marveling at the view. It felt warm and welcoming in here with the copper and brown tones abundant. It felt fanciful with the way the beams and such took on the swaying image of coral, it feeling somewhat aquatic with the green glow that emitted from the middle of a giant cylinder, a panel attached below with buttons upon buttons, a switch thrown in here and there. . . It looked like something you'd see out of a sci-fi movie, she couldn't help but think as she does a cautiously slow 360, wanting to take everything she saw in. At least _try_ to, anyway. It was an awful lot to take in!

She feels the Doctor slip by her, catching a grin about the size of the room on his face as he went by, he slipping his long coat off as he went, he tossing it toward one of the coral like beams, it landing quite nicely. He turns to face her once he's made his way up to the middle of the room, that grin still not budging as he gestures toward her, beckoning her to follow him up.

She slowly makes her way up the metal grating of the ramp (a ramp!), eyes being continuously focused now on the Doctor as she walks up, not knowing what to think of what he was showing her.

"What do you think of the old girl?" he asks brightly as she reaches the top of the ramp, she noticing he giving a few knobs and switches a gentle caress, almost as if this was him greeting whatever they were in.

"Gorgeous." Is all she could think to say in a soft voice, as it was absolutely true. She had never seen anything this fantastical in her life. If she wasn't so awestruck at what surrounded her; her sketchbook would've been out of her bag at that very moment.

This answer seems to excite him, his smile just simply growing.

"So, is there anything else you'd like to say? Maybe something about, oh, I dunno, maybe the _size_?" he bounces about, a terribly excited grin plastered on his face. This was . . . incredible. This was amazing, impossible, unbelievable. There were just so many things she wanted to say in order to describe the wonders before her eyes. But all she mustered up was. . .

"It's, it's . . . Smaller on the outside." she finally manages, a hand gliding over the padding on the railing that went nearly all around the middle. Really, padding on a railing?. . . Well, she didn't see any seat belts anywhere, well, she really only saw one kind of bench seat type of thing.

Her answer makes his grin vanish for a moment, making him stumble slightly in his bouncing. It's soon replaced with a rather delightful guffaw, however, giggles soon following it close behind.

"Oh, Carla Snow, you are** different**! '_Smaller on the outside_'. HA!" He stops a second, a thoughtful expression on his face, "Granted, I'm just a tad disappointed that you didn't say the usual. I like when people do."

"And so are you," She says softly, turning around slowly, letting the whole scene before her sink in as she focused on his comment about her being different, "So very different than what I first thought."

She looks back to him, eyes studying him for so much longer than she should,

"You're not human, are you?" She asks even softer, wondering how on earth he could look just like an ordinary man and be so utterly different.

"Nope." he simply says, a wide grin still in place, the obvious answer still taking her breath away, this making her need to lean against the railing.

"And, and this? Your TARDIS? It's your, well, it could only be your spaceship, right?"

"Not many humans guess that right off the bat." He keeps on with that grin, such delight etched all across his face. . . Delight etched across an alien man's face. A man who looked so very much like any other man in a suit . . . Yet, exceptionally different at the same time, she had to admit to herself. There was always something so very different about the Doctor that she couldn't quite place.

"How can an alien look so human? What makes you so different? Well, besides-" All she can do is gesture around the room they were in, this making the Doctor chuckle.

He holds out his hand, Carla closing the short distance between them, it taking longer than it should as she went so very slow, still so amazed at what she had learned in such a short amount of time.

He takes both of her hands gently when she reaches him, his eyes studying hers with care. He gives her another smile before he goes on, "First of all, I don't look human. You look Time Lord," Before she can ask what on earth a Time Lord is, he lets go of one of her hands, raising his finger to his lips in a 'shh' gesture for her to stay quiet. She complies, "Second. . ." With this pause, he takes a moment, looking as if he was trying to think of how to explain. With a small twinkle in his eye, both her hands are in his again. Before knowing what he was doing, he's placing her hands carefully on his chest, she feeling her cheeks grow hot at the contact.

And before she can say anything about it (or even throw a silly joke out there about this situation); she feels something. A heartbeat on the left, as you should, but then. . . There was one on the right as well.

Hands jumping off his chest as if she had been shocked, she looks up at him in bewilderment, not at all knowing what to say, what to think for that matter.

"I have two hearts." he says in a tone much like you'd use describing the weather.

"So I noticed," She says quietly, cautiously raising her hands again, looking up at the Doctor for permission to feel again. He just gives her his normal smile and a nod. She places them right where they were, indeed feeling two distinct heartbeats, "Yep. You have two hearts."

"Neat, yeah?" He asks, grin growing slightly. She can't help it and starts to giggle, taking her hands down as she starts to laugh, backing up just a little bit, running her hands through her now undoubtedly messy hair.

"Yes," She gets out in between her giggles, being able to control them enough to speak, "So very much so. . . Oh my God," she murmurs, she running her hand down her face in disbelief, "That is . . . Amazingly wonderful."

She smiles at him widely, he smiling back with his grin she's come to grow quite fond of.

"What are you?" She blushes a teeny bit, not meaning it to sound so. . . Well, like he was just some sort of object and not the person she'd come to know as a friend. She really hoped he hadn't taken it that way.

With a thoughtful smile, he answers in a bit of a soft voice, not taking his eyes off hers for a minute as he takes her hand back gently into his,

"I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. I travel through time and space, visiting an expanse of different planets. Of different shapes, colors, histories, people. Sometimes just for fun, for excitement. Sometimes it ends where I help people and save them. Others, I don't or can't because of how time works. It's tricky business sometimes, traveling the way I do," He pauses, looking away for a moment, coming back to her eyes in an instant. A kind smile appearing as he squeezes her hand at his next question, "Does that basically answer that?"

"Yes." She says immediately, it really being very helpful, at the same time, not especially knowing what else to say.

"Good," He drops her hand, a wild grin replacing the gentle smile quite quickly as he hops over to the centerpiece of the room, flipping some sort of switch, a 'fffshh' sound sounding out, "Now, how about I take you to one of those planets?"

It'd be an understatement if she simply said she was dumbfounded by the question.

"W-What?" Is all she can manage.

"**Travel** to one of those _planets_," He enunciates heavily, a teasing smile on his face as he jumps around, pressing button after button, "With me, you know," He grins, bouncing on the balls of his feet yet again, "Have some fun. . . Maybe go to a few other places in between that planet and heading back here."

"You. . . You want me to travel to a, a different planet with you?"

"Of course! And then, maybe we can take a trip through history. Have you ever seen the Eiffel Tower in it's early stages? Well, apart from photos, I suppose you haven't, what with not having a TARDIS and all. It's absolutely brilliant!" That grin would simply not go away, it being positively contagious, her beaming at the prospect.

"Different planets, time travel, oh Lord. . . Why ask me, though?" She can't help but wonder, of course. She was nothing special, after all.

"Because you're brilliant, Carla Snow, and it'd be absolutely amazing and an honor to take a trip with the Woman of the Great North," She giggles at the nickname, he joining in soon enough, "So, what do you say, Carla?" He says softly with a smile after their giggle fit, his hand reaching out toward her for her to ultimately take, "Will you come along on an adventure with me?"

Her smile widens at the more than incredible offer. Lord, different planets, different people, different timesin _history_! Different times in history on other planets, probably! What an absolutely, positively amazing adventure that would be!

She wants to reach out so very badly, and does start to do so, wanting to accept this outstanding offer of traveling with her friend.

Though, her hand stops midway as a thought whispers at her in the back of her mind, soon followed by another, and then another until so many are simply packed together too tightly in a messy pile. . .

_"How could she even. . . ?" _

Her smile slowly falls, hand shrinking away from the Doctor's, both hands sinking deep into her pockets soon after, feeling as if her whole self would and should sink deep within her coat, wanting to disappear as she feels her heart clench as her answer slips softly past her lips. . .

"No. . ."

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><p>Cliffhanger! Why? ! . . . Well, for a bit of suspense, I s'pose. ;) But why, why is she saying no? ! Well, if I told you that, then there would be no point in putting it in the next chapter. :) But yes. . .<p>

Theta-McBride - Thank you, as always my dear. :D Glad you thought it was cool. :)

Even Angels Cry - Thanks so much for a lovely review, my dear! :D And no need to feel mean. I see what you meant, and did change it (it was something the Doctor thought, so I'm glad you pointed it out :) ). I appreciate it terribly much, so if you (or anyone, really) see something that doesn't look right, I'm happy to take the critique about it. :D I'm so glad you're enjoying my little fanfic and glad that you (and everyone ;D) don't mind updates being a bit slow. It makes me all wiggly with happiness. :D Hee, yeah, my brother can't seem to get past my oddness sometimes either (and he's one of my best buds XD). Maybe it's just a brother thing. ;D

Disney-Princess-In-Disguise - My family has had many a dogs that could give a good stink-eye. ;D Hee. Thanks so much! Hope her reaction to the TARDIS met your expectations. ;D And glad you don't mind updates being a tad slow. Makes me all warm and fuzzy when people understand. :)

fanfreak4ever - Thank you, glad you liked. :D Well, here's an update. ;D Hopefully, the next won't be too long of a wait. :D

Weisse-Lilie - I would love a dragon dog like Sebastian. *u* Thanks so much! I'm terribly glad you're enjoying it and think it's a fun read. :D

Thanks so much for reading, one and all! And again, thanks so much for the continued alerts, favs, and reviews! I'm terribly glad people are enjoying the story. :D

Until next time, my darlings. :)


	12. If You're Not Doing Anything

Oh my goodness, hello my darlings! I am so, so sorry. I haven't had access to a computer since I updated last. D: I'm so sorry. Bananas for all. -hands them out to all my lovely readers- :)

But yes. :) But, I do have a computer for at least a couple weeks (many, **many** thanks to my brother in law and sister for borrowing me a laptop, HOORAY for them! :D), so, next update should be within the next couple weeks, so look forward to that, my lovelies. :)

So, lots and lots, and lots of notes at the end. I hope this chapter is worth the cliff hanger wait. :)

And I must say, thank you all SO MUCH for the continued favs, alerts, and reviews! I'm so glad people are enjoying my little fic. :) But I digress. On with the chapter.

Don't own Doctor Who. If I did, I would keep one of the daleks in my living room. ;)

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><p>The silence surronding them rolls on for what seems ages, the Doctor's mind actually feeling terribly blank at Carla's answer.<p>

"No?" he asks carefully, softly as his eyebrows slowly knit together in confusion, his hand still outstretched for her to take.

"No." She whispers, her eyes looking so sad, the Doctor seeing her hand twitch in her pocket as if she were going to change her mind any second and grab on for dear life, not wanting to let go. How he wishes she would.

"But why?" is all he can think to ask.

"How long do these trips ultimately last?" she asks softly, eyes focused on his as his hand drops to his side in realization of her 'no' sticking.

"Well, that all depends, really-"

"Can you have me back in a day? In two?" She interrupts, not showing any signs of stopping, "Are you gone for days, weeks, months at a time? I-I mean, you were gone for_ three weeks _this time around."

"Well, to you, maybe. It was three months for me and Martha. . . And it's not just timing, we ran into the Family of Blood this time around. . . Not to mention things like that happen a bit more than I care to admit. . ." he says thoughtfully, giving his ear a tug at the thought.

"See? !" she exclaims, making the Doctor slightly jump at the unexpected outburst, she suddenly overly animated, hands out of her pockets as she gestures about, "How can I travel with you when your timing can be _that _much off? ! When, when you're running into aliens, pets, a-and probably monsters? !," She stops abruptly, biting her lip as her cheeks turn pink, looking as if she just realized she very nearly was yelling,

"Doctor," her tone softens after a deep breath out, "I want to go. God, every fiber of my being is _screaming_ at me to not look back and ride off into the sunset with you," That old saying makes him smile slightly, "But how can I when I'm a dialysis patient? When you can have such a wonky schedule?" his feeling of confusion sweeps into one of saddening understanding.

"The . . . _Setbacks_," He puts nicely for the unknown, "Aren't a problem, they can easily be solved. And I know my timing can be off, but. . . I could try and get it better." He offers in a bit of a lame attempt.

"Yes, you could _try_. Try is the keyword there, Doctor. But what happens when it doesn't work?"

"Carla. . ." Is all he can offer, he feeling his sadness blooming more fully.

"I may want to do great things and have a grand adventure. But like we discussed; I don't have a death wish. I can't take that chance of becoming immensely ill if you can't work out the time to get me back for a dialysis run," She pauses, her eyes shining a suspiciously wet sheen as she utters a terribly soft, "I'm so sorry."

"Me too," He says gently, a small smile coming to his face, "It would have been fun. Me, you, Martha. Amazing, really."

"I know," She smiles a small smile herself, "Would have been a blast. Though, maybe, maybe Martha can join you on one of your visits? I still have yet to meet her. . . She sounds fantastic."

"I'll think of something, Carla," He goes on, interrupting her request, his mind already weeding through things that could possibly prolong days between her treatment runs, "I'll think of something so you can travel aboard the TARDIS, so you can have that brilliant adventure."

"I'd like that. . . I'd like that a whole lot." She says softly, the small smile still across her face as she looks down at her trainers, a small bout of silence following after the Doctor's proclamation, he watching her as she fiddles with the hem of her jacket.

"If you don't have anything planned for the afternoon," He starts, hands going into his pockets as she looks up at his speaking, he rocking slightly on his feet, trying to come across as nonchalant as he possibly could, "You could, I dunno, hang about with me for a while, at least. Could show you around the console. Around much of the whole ship, really. . . The library has a swimming pool, you know." His eyebrows raise expectantly, so wanting for her to say yes to that at least, make them both feel a tad better with the situation at hand.

She smiles wide, an unexpected soft giggling sound jingling from her lips.

"A pool? In a library? Wouldn't the books get wet?" He grins back, his hand sliding from his pocket, holding it out to her once again.

"Only one way to find out if they would." Biting her bottom lip with that smile still on her face; she gently takes his hand, he leading her over to the console straight away.

"Now this," He lets go of her hand, gesturing toward all the levers and gadgets and whistles and bobbles and bits, "Is the control panel of the console. Interestingly enough, it's isomorphic, meaning only I can operate them."

"Really? You operate this whole thing on your own?" She asks, amazement spreading across her face.

"Well, yes and no. It all depends, really."

"What depends exactly?"

"If I switch it off and allow someone to help me man her. For example, once you're traveling with me, I'll let you do so." He grins at the absolute look of surprise that's taken over her features, not helping but wonder how her features will look when she actually _does_ travel with him.

"You, you would let me help you . . . _fly_ a-a spaceship? !"

"Oh yes!" he proclaims excitedly, bouncing about excitedly, going on to describe some of the controls and how they work.

That was how the afternoon, and a small part of the evening went. The Doctor showing Carla around the TARDIS, he finishing up the tour of the console room, going on to the library from there, she finding out that the pool and shelves upon shelves of books were well separated, the chances of the books becoming water logged exceptionally slim, this surprisingly making Carla slightly disappointed ("Really? I thought maybe there was a type of invisible force field on each book that prevented them from getting wet." The Doctor's reply, "I did actually have a bit of a force field prototype up for a while, but it was too much for the old girl to handle all the time. Good thinking, though.")

She also tried to get a peek at a book from the year 2257, the Doctor putting a stop to it right off the bat, "But what if I'm _supposed_ to read it?" She protested with a bit of a laugh, the Doctor keeping it out of her reach with a small mischievous grin as she tried to snatch it back, "If I do travel with you, what if I meet the author, and he didn't know to write it? What if I'm supposed to give him the idea?"

"Nice try, but, I've **met** him, and there was no such mention of a woman from the great north! He got the idea from a previous wife." He smiles a bit smugly.

"Aha! But what if you meet him again with me in tow and I **become** his wife for a brief time? Is that a possibility?" He pauses in thought, his hand still high above her as she tries another swipe of her hand to grab it.

"Oh, you're good. But you're still not reading it." They both have a good giggle at that, she muttering 'spoilsport' as he places it on a high shelf out of reach for the remainder of her time.

The rest of the time was spent exploring his spacious ship, the Doctor fully enjoying the continuous look of awe she held in her eyes. He especially got a good giggle at the look of shock when they entered the zoo.

"You have a dodo!"

"His name's Filbert." By the time the first syllable of the bird's name was spoken; she already had her sketchbook out, her pencil already furiously working away on the paper.

From there, they went through the art gallery (by how much she dawdled about, he guessed it was one of her favourite rooms of the day), the cricket club, the croquet court, followed by a quick jaunt through the wardrobe, which found the Doctor seeing Carla highly enamored by his past self's scarf, and of all things. . . a bow tie.

"I like bow ties. I think they're. . . _neat_. And look handsomely smart." She beams, he rolling his eyes slightly, having not worn a bow tie in a **long** time.

After that (with Carla wanting to stay in there longer, she trying on a jaunty hat, no less; the Doctor telling her there would be plenty of time next visit to thoroughly investigate the larger than life wardrobe), they had a relaxing afternoon tea in one of the several gardens that occupied the TARDIS.

Soon, they were making their way back, passing the sun room, the drawing room ("It's my private study." The Doctor said), and the garage, the Doctor grinning at hearing Carla's exclamation of spotting a Volkswagen, until they were back where they started, trotting along into the console room with silly grins on their faces from their exploration.

"Well," She starts carefully, a tad of a sad sigh escaping her lips, "It's getting a bit late, and I have a run tomorrow. . . I should get going."

"Are you sure?" He says a tad more casually than necessary as he slid his hands into his jacket pockets, rocking back and forth on his feet slightly, "You know, we could take a quick trip, just for a few hours. Maybe go off to a fair planet, get some candy floss, possibly some popcorn. There is a show we could catch that's more than brilliant. The universes' tiniest giraffe, does magnificent stunts right in front of your eyes." he says, a grin spreading across his face as his idea of a trip comes forth

Shaking her head the slightest bit in amusement, she gives him a bit of a sad smile, "That sounds. . . Amazingly brilliant. . . And extraordinarily tempting," She bites her lip in thought, her eyes studying the Doctor closely,

"How tiny?" She asks, amusement alight in her tone, that shine he saw in her eyes that first time he met her on the patient balcony starting to flicker to life.

"Smaller than a house cat!" He whispers excitedly. A wide smile forms on her face, she biting her lip once more.

"Tempting. Very, very tempting. . . But," She looks down a moment, fingers brushing her hair behind her ear in a nervous gesture, "I can't. . . I want to, but I really can't. . ." Her words fade out to a low hum, that shine from her eyes flitting away as quickly as it came, the Doctor realizing that he shouldn't have tried to persuade her with such an outlandish offer of an outing.

"I know," he says softly, quickly, running a nervous hand through his hair, "Just a trip we could take when it's possible." He gives her a smile, offering her his hand, "May I walk you to your door, Ms. Snow?"

"I'd love it if you did, Doctor." She responds after a moment, reaching for his hand, he taking her's into his gently, placing that hand on his arm to escort her, a tiny grin coming forth on her lips.

"Ms. Snow, Woman of the land of the ten-thousand lakes, it'll be my absolute pleasure to escort you to your door." She chuckles that low, deep laugh, looking up at him with such mirth in her eyes.

"Sir Doctor, I'd be delighted if you escorted me to my door." Making their way to the door of the TARDIS, the Doctor adds as an afterthought,

"You know, I _was_ knighted."

"Oh course you were." was her reply, they laughing as they exited the big blue box, finding that the sun had set, leaving behind a very cool evening. They make their way across the quiet street carefully, he walking her right up to her front door. She lets go of his arm, looking up at him with a grin.

"Thank you, Doctor, for escorting me home, and," she blushes lightly, fingers wandering up to her hair, brushing her fringe away from her green eyes, that hand moving to push her glasses up her nose in a nervous twitch, "And for today. It was amazing. And, and an absolute pleasure to, to tour your ship." She blushes a little more, her cheeks looking so very rosy in the dim, yellow light of her stoop.

He smiles wide, giving her a small, playful bow, this making her chuckle that deep laugh once again.

"Believe me, Carla Snow, the pleasure was all mine." She smiles shyly, her cheeks reddening further as she pulls out a key, unlocking the door to her home as he takes a backward step down, this making him eye level with her.

"Tomorrow?" She looks back, the door swinging inward, "Cards, yeah? I believe I have to defend my title of cheat champion?" he smirks as she turns around, standing in the doorway, the warm light of the entrance way bathing her in it's glow. A teasing grin comes to her lips, she raising an eyebrow at him.

"I think you're mistaken, sir, for I won the last two matches. Your little three month jaunt must have scrambled your brain."

"You've no idea," Was his response, they both having a chuckle, smiling nicely at one another, "Tomorrow? Usual place? Usual time?"

"I'll be there," She smiles a small smile, "I should get in. . . Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are probably wondering what on earth happened to me." he nods in understanding, she starting to close the door, "Thank you again for this afternoon. I really did have a fantastic time."

"No trouble at all, as I had a brilliant time as well. I'll see you tomorrow then."

"See you tomorrow. Goodnight, Doctor."

"Goodnight, Carla." With a final smile, and a small wave, the door closes with a soft click, leaving the Doctor in the cool night, leaving him contemplating if he should travel right into tomorrow as he makes his way back into the TARDIS.

Before making that decision, however; a call comes in from Martha, the phone cutting out before she's able to say what's wrong. Well, there's that decision made for him then before he can even really fully decide. So he'll go and see what the trouble is, get it under control, and actually get back_ in time_ for his card match with Carla, no matter how long he's gone. Oh yes, nothing to it. . .

He just didn't especially think it'd be more than a year until he saw Carla Snow again. . .

* * *

><p>I know, I know! Another cliff hanger. But, as I said, next update should be within a couple weeks. :) Couple notes for you, my dears:<p>

I know the pool doesn't show up in the library until the Eleventh Doctor, but I couldn't resist. How could you when the Doctor's giving a tour of the TARDIS? ;)

And I did look up some of the rooms. I couldn't help but include the endangered animal zoo. ;) Also, I'm sure you know the Second Doctor did wear a bow tie, so there's that reference. :D

Disney-Princess-In-Disguise - I hope that was a good reason for her to say no. _-bites finger nails in nervousness- _ :O So, even if he could have her home in time for dinner, sometimes he just doesn't get his timing right, not to mention getting distracted saving the day, so, even though she wants to go terribly much, she sees that she can't right now. :) I'm glad you enjoyed her reaction. :D Was fun to write. :D

sieni1 - Oh my, I hope you didn't explode. O.o

Theta-McBride - Thank you, my dear, glad you liked it! :D Hee, yes, I've wondered a few times why no one's mentioned the outside being small. ;D

Deathcab4kimmie - _-checks off being the reason for source of procrastination of things to accomplish-_ ;D Thanks so much! I'm terribly glad you're enjoying my little fic. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. :3 Hope it was worth the wait for the cliffhanger end. . . and hope you (and everyone) can endure another cliffhanger. :)

Again, thanks so much everyone! Glad you're all enjoying it so far. :D


	13. I'm So Sorry

This is an incredibly short chapter, so I apologize in advance. :)

Notes at the end.

Don't own the Doctor Who. If I did, well, that'd just be brilliant. ;D

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><p>He was alone. Alone once more.<p>

It felt so empty without Jack and Martha. . . He still couldn't especially believe that she left. He did understand, though. After their year, well, of course she would want to be with her family. Make sure they were alright after such a traumatic time. Not to mention finally getting her career in full swing. Oh yes, he understood fully. Even if he did though, it didn't mean that he had to enjoy it.

With a sigh, he presses a button or two, and pulls a lever, ready to take another ride. He had to go see a familiar face. One with green eyes and black framed glasses that fit her so well. One who was a tad round, not that the Doctor minded one bit. The one that wanted an adventure, that wanted to see everything, and that one day would. . . Carla Snow, who was one of the first to go when the Toclafane descended. He shakes his head with a sigh, lowering it to the point that his chin nearly touched his chest, a noticeable shiver running through him.

They ended up murdering the sick first, deeming them the most worthless among the human population. Well, what the Master deemed most worthless, he should say. . .

He never did find out how she was killed. Though, he didn't especially want to know. He couldn't bear thinking of how the Toclafane took her young life. He couldn't think of how she felt when she fell to death. . .

With another small shudder coming over his slim form; he pulls another lever, the TARDIS making a mighty jerk as it went off.

Now on his way, he's able to have the smallest of smiles. Everything was okay once again, everything was in order, and now; he was going to see his friend and play some cards.

He couldn't think of anything else he would rather do.

* * *

><p>Instead of parking in his usual place just outside; he parked the TARDIS in a seldom used supplies cupboard, just outside Ward 17. He quickly made his way out of his ship, making a dash into the dialysis ward. He grins at spotting Carla in her usual place. Sitting quietly, calmly as if a whole year hadn't gone by, as if it was just a day after they were hanging about in the TARDIS. She was here, well and alive. He practically hops over in his excited relief.<p>

"All right?" He greets her, positively beaming as he walks up to her chair, taking his usual seat next to her. It felt absolutely brilliant to be back visiting Carla after so long.

"Yeah," She says a tad softly, looking away for a moment as she bites her bottom lip, "How are you, Doctor?" That didn't seem like a very Woman of the Great North response. It in fact wasn't at all, prompting an ominous feeling in his stomach.

"What's wrong, Carla?"

"It's nothing, Doctor. I'm fine." She says in a soft tone, her hands idly playing with a loose thread on her jeans.

"It's not nothing if it's something that's obviously bothering you. I can see it written all over your face. You can tell me, really." She takes a moment, all the while biting her bottom lip, a suspicious shine coming over her eyes.

"It's silly, really," She begins in a soft voice, the Doctor having to lean in to hear her, "I know that I just saw you yesterday, but. . . It feels like it's been so much longer than that," This makes the Doctor's eyes widen, his breath catching at her next words, "The dream I had didn't especially help, either."

"What was the dream?" He asks in a kind way, trying his hardest at sounding calm as his hand clenches her chair arm a tad too tightly.

She takes a few seconds to think, her hand messing with her glasses slightly.

"I don't really remember much, but. . . I remember these balls, these, these sphere things falling down from the sky. I remember running, remember feeling such terror. And then. . . darkness. It felt dark for so long. . ." he spots a tear welling up in the corner of her eye, his hearts clenching at the sight,

"I-I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm tearing up." She starts to try and brush the whole thing off with a small laugh, going to wipe away the tear. Though before she could, the Doctor leans forward, enveloping her into a hug as best as he could from his position.

"Doctor. . .?" he hears her ask, sounding the tiniest bit muffled.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. . ." he whispers against her shoulder, not being able to do much else. He's about to pull away, but then feels her hugging back around his slim middle, hugging back as best as she could from her seat.

"Thank you." She responds gently, both their arms tightening, they staying like that until her machine started to beep from their position.

Pulling away from her, they both having amused smiles on their faces; Carla reaches up to wipe the couple tears away that seemed to have escaped.

"Cards, yeah?" The Doctor asks with a small sniff and smile, as he reaches into his pocket for the cards, not waiting for an answer as he already knew it.

"Yes, please. I'd like that very much." Carla says with a small, watery smile, that deep chuckle following right after.

He felt guilty as they were playing cards.

How could she remember even the smallest bit? How is that possible . . . Though, she did know of him. She was a friend, and becoming a close one at that. . . Just knowing him, having been aboard the TARDIS for even such a short amount of time. . . It may have enabled her to retain some of the memory.

It made sense, he rationalized. It made perfect sense.

Suffice it to say, he let her win all of the card games that day.

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><p>Just a little moment for them, so I hope it was worth the shortness of the chapter. :) There is more written, it just didn't especially fit, so another chapter should be on the way in the next few days. :D<p>

Also, just a smidgen of a personal thing going on right now with me, so, I thought I'd best get this off to you lovely ladles and jelly spoons as soon as I could. :)

Disney-Princess-In-Disguise - Thank you, my dear. :D Don't worry, they will get to see the tiniest giraffe later in the story. ;D

Theta-McBride - Thank you! :D I know. D: At least it didn't feel like a year for her. :)

So, there you be. :D I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and again, thanks so much for all the alerts, favs, and reviews! It makes a gal all warm and fuzzy on the inside. :D


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